A man accused of killing a family of four in a house fire has a criminal record for drug dealing, a jury has been told.
Richard Benson QC told Nottingham Crown Court today (MON) that his client Tristan Richards (22) was jailed for 30 months for possessing crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply in 2012.
Mr Benson said his client had also been sent to a young offenders institution for 12 months for four offences of supplying Class A drugs.
He gave the evidence after other defendants in the case had spoken in court about his client's character.
Mr Benson said that Richards had no convictions for violence, save for an official reprimand for assaulting a fellow pupil in a school playground when he was just 13.
Richards, of Sparkenhoe Street, Highfields, Leicester, is one of eight defendants charged with the murders of Shehnila Taufiq, 47, her daughter, Zainab, 19, and sons Bilal, 17, and Jamal, 15, last year.
They died in a house fire in Wood Hill, Spinney Hills, Leicester, on September 13 – hours after the fatal stabbing of 20-year-old Antoin Akpom in Kent Street, Highfields, Leicester, who was known to the defendants.
The court also heard that police went to the home of fellow defendant Aaron Webb (20), of Saltersford Road, North Evington, Leicester, on Sunday, September 15.
Detective Constable Ian McAndrew said that he and another detective spoke to Webb in the presence of his parents as a potential witness to what had happened on the previous days.
Det Con McAndrew said Webb was "extremely vague and very anxious when he spoke to us – and very evasive".
He said Webb, who was a friend of Antoin Akpom, had told the detectives that this would not bring his friend back.
Webb also refused to make a written statement despite being pressed to do so by both of his parents, who became angry with him.
Det Con McAndrew said Webb "became frightened and was shaking, and he was in tears".
The court also heard that defendant Akeem Jeffers (21), of Car Mills, Buslingthorpe Lane, Leeds, was arrested as he left a lecture at Leeds Metropolitan University at 11.35am on September 25.
Detective Constable Stuart Frobisher said that he and another detective picked Jeffers up from Leeds and took him to Leicester where they conducted nine interviews over a period of three days.
The court heard that on legal advice Jeffers had answered "no comment" to most of the questions.
He did make a brief written statement saying that in the hours before and after the fire he had switched his phone off because his battery was low, and he only turned it on to check if he'd had messages or missed calls.
All of the eight defendants on trial are charged with four counts of murder. They all deny the charges.
The other defendants are: Nathaniel Mullings (19), of Farrington Street, off Humberstone Road, Leicester; Jackson Powell (20), of Burnside Road, Saffron Lane estate; Shaun Carter (24), of Franche Road, Dane Hills, and Kemo Porter (19), of Browning Street, in the West End – all in Leicester.
They are joined in the dock by a 17-year-old youth who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The court has heard how the blaze was started when petrol was poured through the letterbox of the family's home and set alight.
The trial continues.
