A KIDDERMINSTER man deliberately started a wheelie bin blaze that spread, leading to the death of a young woman and burns to a five-year-old boy living in flats above, a manslaughter trial was told.

The woman victim’s partner and another man jumped from the first floor of their flat to escape the fire in The Horsefair, Kidderminster, while customers from a nearby pub gathered below to catch them and break their fall, Worcester Crown Court heard.

The prosecution alleges that the fire, in the bin in the passageway under tragic 22-year-old Sandra Nowocinska’s home, was started by Mark Moat, now aged 43, who also lived in the flats.

But Moat denies unlawfully killing Miss Nowocinska on December 1 2014 and damaging by fire homes above a row of shops in The Horsefair, while being reckless about whether lives would be endangered, on November 27 2014.

He also denies damaging by fire a chair on August 23 2014 but the jury has heard he admits that, on January 31 2014, he threatened to destroy the Crystal Café, a business that used to be run under the flats.

Rachel Brand QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the wheelie bin fire, which happened at about 9.45pm, quickly spread to the ceiling of the passageway under the flats and thick smoke penetrated the homes.

Miss Nowocinska’s partner, Fabian Kobusinski, took her and her son to the bathroom, turned on the shower and covered mother and child with wet blankets.

Miss Brand added that there was a bang as a gas meter exploded, the lights went out and the floor filled with smoke.

Mr Kobusinski and Michael Simpson, a man visiting their flat, jumped from the upstairs window as people from the nearby Peacock pub tried to break their fall by catching them.

“At one point a delivery lorry pulled up and some of the people from the pub jumped on top to climb into the premises or to help people out,” said Miss Brand.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus found Miss Nowocinska and her son unconscious in the bedroom.

“Throughout all of this noise and panic, confusion and commotion, Mark Moat stayed in his flat,” said Miss Brand.

Firefighters later found Moat hanging out of a window trying to get some air and he asked what had been going on.

Miss Nowocinska was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, where she was placed in an induced coma, but she died four days later from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning on the brain.

Her son, who suffered burns to his back, survived.

Miss Brand said that, earlier that evening, a drunken-sounding Moat had dialled 999, telling police that he had committed a burglary and, although the victim was not going to report it, he felt guilty about it.

Less than an hour later, the wheelie bin was alight.

Miss Brand said it was not suggested that Moat had wanted to kill Miss Nowocinska but that his unlawful action caused the fire.

Recordings were played to the jury of previous calls by Moat to emergency services.

They included one on January 31 2014, when he said that, if the drugs squad was not sent within 10 to 15 minutes, he would “blow up” the Crystal Café below his home and kill the people in there.

When questioned by police after the fire, Moat said he had been sober that night, had gone to bed about 8.30pm and had nothing to do with the fire in the wheelie bin.

The trial continues.