A HOUSE fire that forced people to jump for their lives was started by a businessman who accused his best man of having an affair with his wife, a jury heard.

Martin Nganga is accused of pouring petrol into the hallway of a house in Mallard Close, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, and causing a “furious” blaze that almost ended in tragedy.

Yesterday, prosecutor Rebecca Austin told a jury at Oxford Crown Court the 46-year-old started the fire in the early hours of January 29 last year. She said Nganga’s phone and the van he was driving had both been tracked from his home in Tiverton, Devon, to the scene of the crime.

The barrister said the prosecution believed his intended target was Peter Kiriamburi, who he had known since they met in Kenya in 1999.

Miss Austin told the jury: “When this case concludes you may feel that what happened at 14 Mallard Close in the early hours of January 29, and what happened to the people who were inside, is something that will stay with you for some time.

"Not only because of what happened, but because of what might have happened, and which the Crown says was only avoided by good luck.

"The occupants went to bed and you will hear how they were awakened by a ferocious fire in the early hours of the next morning.

“A fire the Crown says was deliberately started by someone pouring petrol into the hallway of the house.

“Those inside had no choice but to jump from the first floor of the property to safety, some suffering injuries such as broken bones in the back and broken bones in the leg.

“Whoever started the fire did so deliberately and intending to endanger the life of the occupants which, in anyone’s view, was an extremely cowardly and extremely dangerous act.

“Afterwards none of the tenants could offer an explanation as to why anyone would deliberately want to start the fire.”

But Miss Austin said on January 31 Mr Kiriamburi told police there was one person who had threatened him in the past.

She said: “This man believed that Peter had an affair with his wife. This man believed that Peter had caused the end of his relationship and the end of his marriage.

“In 2012 this man sent Peter a series of threatening texts. They called him a dog and threatened to make him cry every single day for the rest of his life.”

Miss Austin said this man was Nganga, and Mr Kiriamburi had been his close friend, even acting as best man at his wedding to Lilian Kibunja.

The barrister said Mr Kiriamburi and Ms Kibunja were in a relationship, but said it only started after the marriage had ended.

She said Mr Kiriamburi gave police the mobile phone number of his old friend, who ran a car valet business in Devon, and they tracked its movements on January 29.

Miss Austin said: “You can imagine the officers’ surprise when they saw that his phone had travelled from Tiverton in Devon on January 28 to Oxford, and was in the Oxford area in the early hours at the same time the fire was started.”

Miss Austin said another piece of evidence came from businessman Mathew Brine, who had given Nganga a van to clean the day before the fire, and had fitted it with a tracking device.

The barrister said the van was tracked from Tiverton to Brambling Way in Blackbird Leys at 1.44am, where it stayed until 2.40am, then back along the M5 until it ran out of diesel.

Miss Austin said: “It is the Crown’s case that it was Mr Nganga who was driving the van and Mr Nganga who started the fire.”

She added Nganga told police he did not know anything about the fire and that two of his employees had taken the van, adding he had only gone to meet them and stayed with the vehicle until Mr Brine found him on January 29.

The trial continues and Nganga denies arson with intent to endanger life.