A teenager who deliberately started a fire that ripped through a house and killed four siblings has been handed his first parole hearing and could walk free.
Meanwhile, he has only served less than ten years of a life sentence.
Dyson Allen, now 29, had started the fire whilst ‘stoned and drunk’ at a family home in Freckleton, Lancashire, on January 7, 2012.
Four-year-old twins Holly and Ella Smith and their two-year-old brother Jordan were asleep as the blaze took hold in a wardrobe, while elder brother Reece, 19, was overcome by fumes as he went upstairs to try and rescue them.
All four died from the effects of smoke inhalation following the blaze, which occurred as their mother Michelle Smith held a chaotic drug-fuelled party for her 36th birthday.
Allen, then 19, was convicted of four counts of manslaughter at Preston Crown Court in 2013. He was cleared of their murders.
The teenager, who had been drinking vodka since lunchtime, was preparing to light a cannabis pipe or ‘bong’ when he started the fatal fire in a bedroom.
He was ordered to serve a minimum jail term of nine years and three months, which has just expired. This is his first parole hearing, expected to be heard this month.
A spokesman for the Parole Board said: ‘An oral hearing has been listed for the parole review of Dyson Allen and is scheduled to take place in April 2023.
‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
‘A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.
The Parole Board has the power to recommend that Allen be released on licence. If there is no appeal from the Justice Secretary, he could be back on the streets by August.
If he is not released, Allen could be sent to an open prison where he will be eligible for day release and work in the community.
As the verdicts were read out at court in July 2013, members of the victims’ family shouted ‘yes!’, but a woman linked to Allen called out: ‘It’s all her fault. If she had not had that party, none of this would have happened.’
It was later learnt that Ms Smith had given birth to her ninth child since the tragedy, and the four children who died had three different fathers.
‘She had been celebrating her birthday at her home’, the trial was told.
‘Members of the group spent the afternoon drinking and smoking cannabis’, Neil Flewitt QC told Preston Crown Court.
‘As a result, the recollection of most of the witnesses is affected, by some extent, by drink and in some cases by drugs in the form of cannabis,’ he said.
