JURORS were yesterday told there was no way they could convict Fiaz Munshi of planning to kill two children in a house fire.

The mum-of-four, 38, denies killing Anum Khan, eight, and her brother Majid, 15, in an arson attack on their home in Magdalen Road, East Oxford, in 1997.

The prosecution has told the Oxford Crown Court trial that Munshi wanted to torch the house after the family told her to stay away from their son Amjad – her then boyfriend – when he was jailed for dealing heroin.

But her barrister Stephen Kamlish, in his closing speech, said Munshi loved Amjad and would not have wanted to harm his family.

He also gave 10 points which he said suggested another motive for the crime, including evidence about an alleged drug debt and a claim that Majid had damaged a BMW belonging to Haroon Sharif who was one of five men convicted of the murders in 1998.

Mr Kamlish said: “It all builds up and it makes a really strong case that the fire was driven by Haroon Sharif and the drug war.”

The lawyer said Amjad Khan had been the only person to show his client true affection in her life because her family had been controlling and abusive.

He said: “She is about an abused a person as you can imagine. She has been abused by everyone since she was young. She is a classic abused woman.”

And he added: “At the end of the day the only person in her life who showed her any love and any understanding was Amjad Ali Khan.

“There is no way a reasonable juror could possible say that someone in that relationship would want to burn down the house and kill the occupants of the family of the person she loved.”

The judge is expected to begin summing the case up today.

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