'Hysterical' victim feared for mother's life in petrol bomb attack, court told
A mother of two was 'hysterical' when a petrol bomb exploded outside her home during a hate campaign allegedly orchestrated by her ex-partner, businessman Robert McNaughton, a court heard.
The attack was launched when Sharon McCann and her mother were at her home in Hopwood Close, Halesowen, where CCTV had been installed after windows were repeatedly broken and car tyres slashed.
She explained in a pre-recorded video interview, played to Wolverhampton Crown Court: "I noticed a man running up the road with something bright in his hand. He went behind my car and the next thing we knew he had thrown it through the vehicle's back window.
"I shouted to mum and ran outside in time to see a car drive away.
"I ran back and could see all the inside of our car was glowing. I started banging on my neighbours' windows, shouting 'help me' and 'dial 999'. My mum was chucking saucepans of water on the car but that was not doing anything.
"Flames were going everywhere."
Her mother also tried to extinguish the flames with a hose but was told to get in the back garden as a neighbour pulled Miss McCann away moments before the car blew up , the court was told.
Miss McCann continued: "The car was raging with fire and there was smoke everywhere. I could not see where my mother was and was hysterical.
"Then I was told she was with the next door neighbour." Fire crews eventually put out the blaze on February 1, 2015, which gutted the car and also caused some damage to the house. Paramedics checked both women, neither of whom was injured.
Miss McCann revealed her seven-year romance with McNaughton ended in September 2013 because she thought he had been unfaithful. She said he was jailed at the end of that year for contempt of court in relation to his business affairs and while he was inside she was phoned by a woman who claimed to have been his girlfriend, prompting her to cut links with McNaughton.
He bombarded her with text messages and calls when freed from jail in a bid to rekindle their relationship, she said.
Windows were then smashed at both her family's home and in their cars which were also daubed with paint.
Joden Smith and Matthew Barker had admitted involvement in a conspiracy to commit criminal damage between July 2014 and March 2015, the jury was told.
Mr Peter Arnold, prosecuting, claimed they had been recruited by McNaughton.
But the defendant, from Tenter Drive, Halesowen, denies any involvement. The trial continues.
