A FATHER broke down in court after he described the night his three-year-old daughter was horribly burned in an arson attack.

Francesca Bimpson suffered 95% burns and died three weeks after petrol was poured through the letterbox of her family home in Everton and set alight.

Graham Heaps, 43, of South Wales, the ex-boyfriend of the youngster’s aunt, Linda Skelhorne, denies murdering her in a jealous rage.

Kieron Bimpson, Francesca’s father, said: “I went to bed at 10.30pm. I next remember the blackest suffocating smoke.You could hardly breathe or see.

“I knocked Eleanor [Francesca’s mother] and she woke up screaming. I opened the bedroom door and it was an inferno coming from the stairs.

“I shouted, ‘the house is on fire, the house is on fire, get the kids!’, and I tried to get across the landing.”

Mr Bimpson jumped out of a window, injuring his ankle.

He said: “I saw a person coming towards me. I can only describe him as Graham Heaps. He was the first person I saw at the scene.

“My initial thought was wondering why he was here when he lives far away.”

The case continues.