A TEENAGER caught on CCTV carrying a petrol can towards London Road, Blackburn, minutes before a house was torched, denies starting the fire which killed an innocent couple inside.

Mohammed Junaid Miah, 19, of Pelley Road, told the jury he was the figure seen on footage from a camera which captured three men leaving a car parked in Calder Bank, round the corner from Abdullah and Ayesha Mohammed’s home in 175 London Road.

But he claimed that he had been ‘threatened’ by co-defendant Habib Iqbal, 25, of Strone Road, East London, to carry the petrol can and he then handed it back ‘off-camera’.

Miah said he was stood on a side access road when the fire was set around 1.20am on Wednesday, October 21.

The prosecution case is that Miah, Iqbal and Sadek Miah (no relation), 23, from Byng Street, Isle of Dogs, carried out the arson attack on the instruction of 21-year-old Hisamuddin Ibrahim, from Shelley Avenue, East London. All four are charged with two counts of murder.

The allegation is that Ibrahim ordered the arson attack to avenge his family’s honour because his sister was having an affair. Her lover’s house in London Road, Blackburn, was the intended target, but the attackers got the wrong address.

CCTV footage from 1.16am was played to the jury and prosecutor Brian Cummings QC, cross examining Mohammed Junaid Miah, said: “You are in an access road in the middle of Blackburn, in the middle of the night, 250 miles from home and you are just standing on the pavement.”

Miah told the court ‘yes’ and confirmed he had the petrol can.

Miah said: “I didn’t want to carry it, he threatened me. I told him I didn’t want to touch it and he took it and said wait there.”

All four defendants deny two counts of murder. Sadek Miah has admitted manslaughter.

(Proceeding).