Boy tried to kill family in order to be adopted by rich couple

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy set fire to his home to wipe out his family so he could be adopted by a rich couple, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

He battered his 12-year-old brother over the head with a shovel and axe and then set fire to the house, it was alleged.

After burying the axe and a bag full of incriminating items, he fled to a friend’s house and claimed a man with a gun had forced him to do it, said Sir Allan Green, QC, prosecuting.

His parents had managed to escape the “intense” fire by climbing down a rescue ladder.

His 16-year-old sister had also managed to escape from her bedroom window.

But his 11-year-old sister died from smoke inhalation.

The 12-year-old boy was found with serious head injuries in the loft-room the two boys shared, but survived, said Sir Allan.

The defendant, who described himself as a Goth, had written a “chilling” list of things to do a few weeks earlier.

It was found under his bed following the fire in April, 2004, at the family home in south London.

It read: “Operation new life. Kill family. Lose memory. Get adopted by a rich couple. It all starts,” Sir Allan told the court.

It then went on to list the names of his parents and three siblings in a “List of Deaths.”

The youth, who is now 16, denies murder, attempted murder and arson.

Sir Allan saidthe jury would hear expert evidence to decide whether the boy’s responsibility for the crimes was diminished.

He said the boy also made a list of things to be buried and added a note to cut himself to make it look like “a demon had done it.”

When police arrived, he allegedly asked them: “Has anyone died? If anyone is going to die, it’s my little sister. She’s asthmatic.

“I hope my brother’s all right because we are really close.”

Sir Allan added: “He said ‘Not everyone liked him at school because he did well academically and because he was a Goth and wore dark clothes’.”

The boy allegedly said he woke to find a man with a gun who told him to knock his brother out with a small shovel.

The man took him to a garden shed where he took the axe and placed a pair of tights over his head before ordering him to kill his brother.

He was ordered to take down a fire alarm before starting the fire on a cushion with a copy of the Radio Times and a lighter.

The trial was adjourned to today.