Mark Crook (left), his daughter Melissa and her toddler son Noah (right) were killed in a house fire in Chatham

by Dan Bloom

A "twisted and unbalanced" car salesman called his wife to say goodnight to their toddler son just hours before he burned them to death, a court heard today.

Jurors heard Danai Muhammadi phoned his wife on the night she died after he texted: "Hi mel, I want speak to Noah before he sleep. please I miss him x".

It was the last time they spoke. Eight-and-a-half hours later, Muhammadi poured and sprayed petrol through the letterbox of Melissa Crook’s family home and set it alight in a "wicked" arson, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

Melissa, 20, 15-month-old Noah and her father Mark, 49, died after the blaze in Chatham Hill in the early hours of Saturday, September 10. Her brother Bohdan and mother Amanda escaped.

Muhammadi, from Iran and pictured left, denies three counts of murder and two of attempted murder along with his new girlfriend, Emma Smith, and Maidstone nightclub bouncer Farhad Mahmud.

Mark Dennis QC, prosecuting, said Muhammadi, egged on by Smith, offered Mahmud money to help with the murder after his and Melissa’s marriage broke down.

The court heard Muhammadi and Smith drove from his Coventry home to Mahmud’s flat in Fernhill Road, Maidstone, with a garden spray container already in the boot of his Renault Megane on the night of September 9.

The couple recorded themselves on a mobile phone "in high spirits" while they waited for Mahmud to return from his job as a bouncer at the Babylon nightclub in Maidstone, it is claimed.

The recording apparently caught mum-of-one Smith singing out: "You lost, bitch" - spoken to her new boyfriend, but aimed at Melissa.

When Mahmud came home, he and Muhammadi drove to Chatham where they filled the sprayer and a green plastic can with seven litres of petrol at a garage a few minutes’ drive from Chatham Hill, the court heard.

They allegedly used the sprayer to spread the petrol as deeply as possible into the house "in the dead of night", leaving no chance for the Crooks to escape.

Mr Dennis said: "It is often difficult to fathom why someone should carry out an act of violence or harm towards another.

"Such a wicked act as was perpetrated in this case tends to suggest a somewhat twisted and unbalanced mind."

Floral tributes outside the blaze house in Chatham Hill

The court heard Smith "goaded" her new boyfriend into murder despite only being with him intensely for a few weeks.

She and Melissa exchanged furious texts just days before the fire.

Mr Dennis said: "It is not known who first came up with the plan to carry out the arson attack on the Chatham house, as we submit, by way of spite or perceived vengeance.

"However, it is known that Muhammadi had had thoughts of extreme violence in the past and had expressed them to one of his work-mates."

The court heard months before the fire, Muhammadi had told colleagues he wanted to throw acid in Melissa’s face to "f*** up her life."

But the colleagues did not think he was serious. Prosecutors claim Muhammadi told a number of bizarre cover stories as part of an "elaborate bluff."

The day before the fatal fire, the court heard, he told colleagues his wife and child were in hospital after a fire at their home.

Colleague Stephanie Chambers said he told her: "There’s been a fire at my wife’s mum’s house in Kent and the police think I’ve got something to do with it."

He denied setting the made-up fire, but when she asked if he had anything to do with it, she claimed he replied with a grin or smirk and the word "maybe".

The court heard Muhammadi, called "Danny" and "Sam" by friends, was filled with "spite, anger and resentment" when he allegedly sprayed the petrol through his in-laws’ letterbox.

Mr Dennis said in his opening speech the escapees will "be left with the mental scars from this event for the rest of their lives."

He said: "The perpetrators of this dreadful act plainly had no intention that the occupants of the house would be able to escape the effects of the fire.

"A spray container device had been used to ensure that the petrol was squirted deep into the hallway and around the foot of the staircase, thereby ensuring not only that the fire would take hold inside the house but also that the means of escape for those upstairs was cut off."

The court heard the Crooks were an "ordinary, law-abiding family with no known enemies" but had a "problem which had been festering for a long time" – the marriage.

Melissa was just 16 when she moved to Coventry to live with Muhammadi, who she had met in her early teens while he worked in Maidstone.

The Kurdish refugee moved to Britain in January 2005 and met fellow refugee Mahmud, from Iraq, who worked at a large bakery in Maidstone.

Melissa married Muhammadi in 2009. Eight months later, she gave birth to Noah after an unexpected pregnancy.

Mr Dennis said: "Their short-lived marriage had finally broken down six months earlier, amidst arguments and emotional conflict, not least involving their young child.

"By the week of the fire, it was clear that, for the first defendant’s wife, the marriage was over, divorce imminent and his wife and child were to go together on their separate way without him.

"It is alleged in this case, that the first defendant was the principal figure behind this arson attack. An act borne of a mixture of spite, anger and resentment on his part directed towards his wife and done with utter disregard for her family and his own child."

Police at the scene of the house fire in Chatham Hill

Melissa Crook was cradling Noah in her arms when they died in her bedroom in at the Chatham Hill house where her parents had lived since they wed.

Her father Mark escaped the fierce fire, but died of his injuries six days later in the burns unit at East Grinstead Hospital.

His wife of 22 years, 50-year-old Amanda, survived after she escaped, as did Melissa’s brother Bohdan who leaped from his bedroom window.

Both arrived at court this morning, and are due to relive the harrowing night in the witness box following the opening speech.

They are the first of 72 prosecution witnesses due to take the stand in the four-week murder trial, which will also view CCTV, phone and police records.

Muhammadi, 24, of Britannia Street, Coventry, Mahmud, 35, of Fernhill Road, Maidstone, and Smith, 21, of Barley Lea, Coventry, are each charged with three counts of murder.

The trio are also charged with attempting to murder Amanda and Bohdan.

They deny all the charges and the trial continues.