Overview
- Danielle Johnson, Louis Casson and Calvin Smith pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in a case over a 2023 North Shields house fire that killed 18-year-old Leah Casson.
- The judge granted them bail, and a four-week trial is listed to start on 5 October, with a pre-trial hearing in September.
- Prosecutors say the charge is unlawful-act manslaughter based on an alleged diversion of the home’s electricity meter that caused the blaze.
- The defendants also denied counts of abstracting electricity between August 2022 and January 2023, which means tampering with a meter to divert power.
- Prosecutor Richard Wright KC told the court that a fourth defendant, Craig Watson, has died in prison.