Oil Burner Blamed For Death Of Baby
The Age
Thursday September 28, 2000
A house fire that killed a two-month-old boy and seriously injured his sleeping mother was started accidentally after an aromatherapy oil burner malfunctioned, the Supreme Court was told yesterday.
Mark John Smith is accused of attempting to murder his wife, Nicole Taylor, and of murdering their baby son, Adrian.
Mr Smith's lawyer, Stratton Langslow, told the court that tissues carelessly discarded by Ms Taylor on the morning of the fire may have been ignited by the oil burner, which was alight on a bedside table.
The burner, unbeknown to Ms Taylor (formerly Nicole Smith), had been lit by Mr Smith, Mr Langslow said.
Ms Taylor was severely burned and later had her right arm amputated as a result of her injuries. Adrian died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Mr Langslow earlier told the court the charges of murder and attempted murder Mr Smith now faced were based on a ``horrible" and ``wrong" theory.
He said a number of people had come forward after the fire at the couple's Hoppers Crossing house complaining their oil burners had malfunctioned - some of them flaring dangerously - for no apparent reason.
Mr Smith has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Yesterday, Mr Langslow showed to the jury a copy of an article about the fire, published in October, 1996, in a Queensland newspaper.
In the article, Ms Taylor is attributed as saying: ``All I remember is a blanket of smoke weighing me down."
Mr Langslow said this conflicted with the chilling version of events Ms Taylor recounted to the jury earlier this week.
Then, Ms Taylor said she was held down on her bed and smothered with a cloth in the moments before Adrian was killed by fire.
``I remember finding it difficult to breathe...(it was) like I was being held down...and there was something over my face," she told the court.
Cross-examined by Mr Langslow as to the apparent conflict, Ms Taylor said she had not thought it ``appropriate" to relate the correct version of events to the Queensland journalist.
The trial, before Justice Frank Vincent, continues today.
© 2000 The Age