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

by Dan Bloom

The girlfriend accused of “goading” a used car salesman into murdering his wife and son told jurors she loved him - despite selling herself for sex.

Emma Smith took the stand today to deny playing a crucial role in a house fire which killed former Upbury Manor School pupil Melissa Crook, her son Noah and father Mark.

She met Melissa’s husband Danai Muhammadi a month before the fire and fell in love, adding: “He said he loved me.”

But she admitted sleeping with a Romanian car wash employee called George for money four times behind Muhammadi’s back.

She said it was to buy furniture for her young son and she felt “dirty” and “guilty”.

Muhammadi, who met her at a bus stop on August 2, wept in the dock as she spoke.

Emma Smith, defendant in Chatham Hill triple murder trial

Prosecutors claim she “goaded” Muhammadi to squirt petrol through the letterbox of the Crooks’ family home in Chatham Hill, Chatham, at 2.30am on September 10.

She dialled 999 minutes after the fire from the Maidstone flat of Muhammadi’s friend Farhad Mahmud. All three deny murder.

Alan Kent QC, defending, introduced Smith to the witness box on Friday saying: “You may be there for some time.”

She wore fur-lined boots, cream trousers and a white top and spoke in a quiet voice.

He opened by saying: “Did you have anything to do with the starting of this fire?”

“No,” she replied.

Smith denied sending a string of abusive texts to the 20-year-old murder victim days before the fire, claiming Muhammadi sent them from her phone.

Aftermath of fire in Chatham Hill

The texts included “he’s wasted 5 YEARS WITH U” and “he ain’t thinking of you when he on me hun”.

Smith said: “I would just shrug it off, I’ve got better things to worry about than bitchiness.”

But she did write “you’re on f------ thin ice with me” after Melissa allegedly sent her offensive Facebook messages.

The messages included “your parents didn’t want you” and “you’re nothing and you don’t deserve to be happy.”

“It upset me,” she said.

“So much you’d want to kill her?” asked Mr Kent.
“No,” she replied.

Smith said her new boyfriend never explained he had anger management problems.

“You had known him 27 days,” Mr Kent said. “Did you think you knew him?”
“I thought I did, yeah,” she said.

She added: “I knew he loved Melissa and wanted to get back with her and I weren’t going to get in the way.”

Smith said Muhammadi dumped her three nights before the fire because he had slept with his estranged wife on a trip to London.

That same night Smith slept with her dad’s friend Wayne Elliot, telling jurors “I was glad they were back together and trying to work their marriage out.”

But by the night of the fire Smith and Muhammadi were back together.

Smith told police she knew nothing about the blaze until they confronted her with her own 999 call.

Then she said Muhammadi had phoned her from Chatham and ordered her to dial 999.

She is due to continue giving evidence on Monday at Maidstone Crown Court.

Smith, of The Barley Lea, Coventry, denies murdering Melissa, 15-month-old Noah and 49-year-old Mark and attempting to murder Melissa’s brother Bohdan, 22, and mum Amanda, 50.

Muhammadi and nightclub bouncer Farhad "Freddie" Mahmud deny the same charges.

Earlier today Mahmud, 35, declined to take the stand.

It is alleged he was offered money by Melissa’s husband Danai Muhammadi to help start the fatal blaze on September 10.

The trial continues.