Cathy Bartlett is accused of trying to murder sister Rachael by setting fire to home in the New Forest

Cathy Bartlett started the fire by pouring a can of petrol on the stairs, having removed a working smoke alarm and its battery, it was claimed.

Prosecutor Charlie Gabb QC told jurors at Winchester Crown Court it was the second time in a month that 30-year-old Bartlett had sparked a major fire in a bid to kill her sister Rachael.

The motive was to cover up her “dishonesty and treachery”, fearing she was about to be found out having stolen more than £100,000 from her sibling which she lavished on friends and acquaintances and created a fake life for herself.

The court heard how a month before the blaze at Bartlett's mother's home in New Inn Lane, Bartley, a fire had ravaged her father's three-bedroom home in nearby Winsor.

Rachael had been living there alone at the time, with her dog Jade, and only survived the blaze thanks to the animal alerting her and enabling her to escape. Jade died in the fire.

Mr Gabb told how the blaze in Bartley, broke out on Tuesday April 7 – the morning after Easter Monday – as Rachael was asleep upstairs and her mother Frances slept in the front bedroom.

Mr Gabb told jurors how Bartlett had been working as finance manager for Rachael and was in complete control of all her finances which she allegedly plundered – spending £20,000 on Saints tickets she gave away to friends and their friends.

He told how she waited until the early hours of the morning for her mother and sister to be asleep before pouring a can of petrol on the stairs around 2.30am.

“She had been driven in her own mind to the point of doing something desperate. Within the space of the next 12 hours her world was going to be exposed. She was going to be revealed as the lying, cheating, treacherous sister that she was.

“It’s almost unimaginable, burning your own sister alive in the house.”

Jurors heard how Rachael had been purposely given alcohol and tablets to ensure she slept “and would never wake up”, said Mr Gabb.

Bartlett “sprinkled” the petrol on the stairs before she “struck a match and set the fire”.

Mr Gabb told the court: “Rachael was not meant to get down those stairs.”

He then described how Bartlett, who is said to have disposed of the petrol can in a garden bin, then turned herself into “a sort of heroine” rushing to her mother's bedroom to wake her before they both escaped the burning house.

Jurors were told how the pair went to the back of the house, with Frances screaming out while Bartlett was “calm”.

Mr Gabb told how Rachael, who is “a large lady” recovering from a badly fractured ankle, woke from the noise but was met with the flames licking the top of the stairs. Her only escape, he said my was a Velux loft window, adding “you can only imagine... she feared it was going to be her funeral pyre.”

Jurors heard how Rachael pulled her bed underneath the window and somehow got out on to the roof, clinging on before she lost her grip, fell to the ground and was knocked out.

The court heard how Bartlett – a mum of two young children – had started the fire and attempted to kill her sister because she was hours away from her “tangled web of lies” being uncovered.

Later that day Rachael had arranged for a meeting at the bank and was set to see, for the first time, that her bank accounts had been “raided”, jurors were told.

Mr Gabb described how Bartlett had made the 999 call to alert the fire service to the blaze at her mothers home at 2.38am, emergency crews arrived and Rachael was taken to hospital.

But as fire investigators examined the scene they called in police after fire sniffer dog Ruby, twice identified that petrol had been found on the stairs.

Mr Gabb told how there was evidence found that was “highly incriminating” of Bartlett who, he says, will plead as her defence that she didn’t start the fire.

The court heard how search teams made a “shocking discovery” when they swabbed the petrol can found discarded in a garden bin and found Bartlett’s DNA on it.

They found a smoke alarm, minus the battery, which was later recovered from the kitchen, swabbed and found to also have Bartlett’s DNA.

A box of large matches were also found containing her fingerprints, the court heard.

Mr Gabb said: “Somebody had taken the trouble to get on a chair and take the battery out of the smoke alarm so it wouldn’t work. Nobody was meant to get out of that property. The fire was meant to be of such an intensity it was too late.”

Police uncovered “dishonesty and treachery from one sister towards another” when they began investigating.

“Up until that time Rachael Bartlett believed that her sister loved her as much as she loved Cathy,” he added.

Jurors went on to hear about an earlier fire, on March 6, which broke out at at the home of Bartlett’s father Michael, in Whitemoor Lane, Winsor.

At the time, Rachael was staying there alone, with her dog Jade, and the blaze was so ferocious that around 95 per cent of it was destroyed.

Mr Gabb told the court that no charges were ever brought following the fire as all evidence had been destroyed, but added that although the prosecution could not rule out a genuine accident, Bartlett was “a prime suspect”.

Explaining what he believed to be Bartlett’s motive, he described her as “just plain bad or some may say evil” for what she did in a bid to evade her lies being uncovered.

He told how Bartlett had begun working for Rachael in 2014, after she started up her own company called NurtureItGlobal, a company that brings businesses together, based at their father's property.

Bartlett, trusted by her sister, was hired as finance manager to look after the books and accounts but behind her sister's back what she did amounted to “systematic greed”, he said.

What happened then was described to jurors as “breathtaking dishonesty” as she created a fictional character called Rick McCarthy who Bartlett claimed had signed a contract to do business with the firm, bringing in £60,000 a year.

Emails and letter were exchanged and Bartlett said she was working for him directly, because he thought she was so impressive, for three days a week.

But, the court heard, the entire thing was fantasy - Rick McCarthy didn’t exist and the whole thing was “a figment of her warped and dishonest imagination”.

Jurors were told: “Cathy Bartlett was conducting a private life completely removed from the norm. She was about buying friends.”

Mr Gabb told the court how, unbeknown to Rachael, she bought more than £24,000 of football tickets and had a “guest list” of mates and her lover, who she took to Saints games on hospitality tickets with free food and drink.

She also put up many friends in Southampton’s Grand Harbour Hotel, enjoying room service having told staff there that she worked for Southampton Football Club to try and get a cheaper deal.

Bartlett also spent more than £1,300 - on expensive vodka she then sold off to friends cheaply or gave away, and booked and paid for 12 tickets and three caravans at the Isle of Wight Festival, the court heard.

Bartlett, 30, who has been on remand since she was charged, denies attempted murder, arson with intent to endanger life and 10 counts of fraud.

Bartlett lived in a "fabricated" world, court told

JURORS have heard how Rachael Bartlett had began demanding to see her bank statements and know the state of her finances just days before her sister allegedly attempted to murder her.
A series of text messages and emails retrieved from Cathy Bartlett’s mobile phone showed messages exchanged between the pair in which Rachael asked for her credit and debit cards back.
Prosecutor Charlie Gabb QC said it was clear she was “fed up” with the bad service she thought she was receiving from her bank in failing to get the information to her.
But, he told jurors, Rachael had been made to think that was the case by Bartlett who was “biding for time”.
The significant number of text messages given to the jury and also read to the court also revealed Bartlett’s “fantasy” world in which she “completely fabricated” the truth with her then lover Julian Lane, a man from Devon who worked in Southampton on tug boats.
The messages revealed how she gave him football tickets, paid for a boys day out at Arsenal for him and his son and gave him money and gifts such as iPads, GoPros, televisions, laptops, England rugby tickets and nights in hotels – which the prosecution claim was done with Rachael’s money and without her knowledge.
Bartlett – who referred to herself as Tartlett in messages with her lover in which she impressed the importance of honesty and “secrets that cause problems nobody needs” – also regularly referred to being involved in business and working alongside a man called Leroy Whale. 
The court heard he is understood to have once been a reserves player at Southampton Football Club. It was his firm, called Futurama, based in London, which Bartlett claimed she had secured regular work from for Rachael’s business.
Mr Gabb said: “ She was all heart, all generosity, all kindness – nothing was too much. It might have meant something if it was her money, but it was not.”