THE BEST friend of tragic Anita Harris broke down in tears while giving evidence in court yesterday after she was asked whether she herself had started the fire in which Miss Harris died.

The accusation came on the second day of the trial in Bristol of Miss Harris’s former boyfriend, James Larkin, 32, who denies charges of manslaughter and arson with intent to endanger life, in relation to a fire in his flat on September 22 last year in which Miss Harris died.

Defending Larkin, Susan Evans QC accused Julie Roberts, who called 39-year-old Miss Harris her ‘sister’, of being the one to have set fire to a duvet that Larkin had wrapped himself up in.

The prosecution allege that it was Larkin himself who set fire to it because he was ‘attention seeking’.

Miss Evans said: “Had you in fact lit the quilt in the bedroom?”

Miss Roberts, 43, who was giving evidence via videolink, replied: “Hell no.”

Miss Evans questioned Miss Roberts’s account of what took place that evening and the exact sequence of events.

But Miss Roberts insisted that although she was confused over what had happened and when, she had seen Larkin start the fire.

She said: “I saw him do it.”

On Wednesday the court heard that the three had been drinking together for most of the day and then returned to Larkin’s flat in Frampton Close, Eastleaze, Swindon.

There was an argument between Larkin and Miss Harris over her playing loud music. Larkin had apparently lost his temper, and Miss Harris started packing clothes to leave.

Miss Evans asked Miss Roberts: “There was more arguing then he said ‘get out of my ****ing house’.

“He said that to you didn’t he?”

Miss Roberts replied: “No, he said it to the both of us.”

Miss Evans continued: “And the reason was because you had been stirring things up between him and Anita hadn’t you?”

Miss Roberts replied: “That’s so untrue.”

Later the jury heard from Annette Witts, a housing support worker for vulnerable adults in Swindon, who had been helping Miss Harris since about February 2009.

She had found her a flat in April and said Miss Harris had been working hard to stay sober but would have a lapse every three or four weeks.

She described meeting Larkin when Miss Harris came in for appointments with her.

She said: “ I never witnessed any arguments but always very difficult to talk to her because he was with her all the time.

“It made it quite difficult to provide support for her.”

She described an incident on September 16, six days before she died, when Miss Harris called her saying she had run away from Larkin.

“She was very, very distressed on the phone, crying and I couldn’t understand her,” she said.

“I calmed her down and she said she was at the hospital, she had been in for day surgery, and she had run away from James.

“She just said she couldn’t take anymore, he wouldn’t give her any space and she wanted to get away from him.”

She arranged for her to get a place in a women’s refuge and said later that day Larkin had come to her office ‘shouting, swearing and demanding to speak to me and kicking the door’.

The trial continues.