A senior judge is to consider whether a man who killed four people in a house fire should remain in prison for the rest of his life.
Crown lawyers told Mr Justice O’Hara on Thursday that it was open to the court whether to hand down a whole of life tariff to Daniel Sebastian Allen (33) given that four people, including two children perished in the deliberate blaze.
Allen pleaded guilty the murders of Sabrina Gossett (19), her 16-year-old brother Roman Gossett and her 15-month-old daughter Morgana Quinn.
He denied murdering his partner Denise Gosset but admitted manslaughter by reason of a suicide pact.
Belfast Crown Court heard he had been living with the family at a rented bungalow outside Derrylin in Co Fermanagh at the time.
Prosecution counsel David McDowell KC said: “In relation to the murders, he accepts an intention to kill Sabrina Gossett by strangulation and before that she had administered the drug GHB to Roman Gossett and Morgana Quinn and that he was complicit in those acts.
“While he claimed to have strangled Sabrina, her blood was found on his T-shirt, trousers and keys to a set of handcuffs. We say his version of events is manifestly fase, wholely implausible and we invite the court to reject this.”
Mr McDowell said that at 7am on Tuesday, February 27 2018 a resident in Derrylin noticed the roof of a nearby house on fire.
The alarm was raised and emergency services were tasked to a cottage on the Molly Road off the Doon Road.
When the landlord arrived at the cottage, it was “badly on fire” and Allen was present.
He gave police his name and said he was a paranoid schizophrenic but Mr McDowell told the court that the defendant had never been diagnosed as such.
He spoke about his partner and her children and said he “promised to put them to the next life because they didn’t want to stay here no more”.
A post mortem report said all four bodies “were extensively damaged by fire’'. Denise Gossett was found to have soot staining in her lungs “which indicated she was alive’' when the fire started and died of smoke inhalation.
Sabrina Gossett “was most likely dead when the fire started’'. There was no evidence she had been strangled. The cause of death could not be determined because of the burns she sustained.
Morgana Quinn and Roman Gossett were also found to be dead when the fire started and had “exceptionally high levels of GHB in their blood. There is a strong suggestion that they died of GHB poisoning’'.
In a defence statement, Allen claimed he was part of a suicide pact between both Denise and Sabrina Gossett.
In a victim impact statement, Samantha Gossett, the eldest daughter of Denise Gossett, said the murders “had shattered her world and has left me without any blood-related family’'.
Defence counsel Frank O’Donoghue KC said Allen had led a “chaotic life’' and suffered from mental health issues.
Mr Justice O’Hara said he would give his tariff ruling next week.