Woman 'burnt boyfriend in bed'

Kerrie Hogben's boyfriend died in a fire during a firefighters' strike

A woman who was desperate to get her boyfriend out of their flat murdered him by setting fire to his bed as he slept in it, a court has heard.

Kerrie Hogben, 31, started the fire - during a firefighters' strike - knowing Matthew Thatcher was drunk and a heavy sleeper, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

Jurors were told the couple had a "stormy and turbulent relationship" and had argued shortly before the fire at their home near Maidstone in Kent.

Green Goddess fire crews pulled Mr Thatcher from the burning flat but he died later in hospital from burns and the effects of inhaling smoke.

'Confession to friends'

The 28-year-old water company employee was the first person in the UK to die during the second firefighters' strike over pay and conditions in November 2002.

Anthony Haycroft, prosecuting, told the court the evidence from the scene of last November's fire was "neutral" as to how it had started.

But central to the Crown's case, he said, was a confession that Miss Hogben allegedly made to friends later the same weekend.

Miss Hogben who was living in Victoria Street, Eccles, Kent, with Mr Thatcher at the time of his death, denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

The trial continues.