A man from Nottingham has been found guilty of murdering his neighbour and her two young children by setting fire to their home. The man poured petrol through their letterbox and set fire to their flat while they were asleep in November last year.
Jamie Barrow, 33, torched the flat belonging to Fatoumatta Hydara, 28, and daughters Fatimah Drammeh and Naeemah Drammeh, aged three and one, in Clifton, Nottingham.
The man had admitted their manslaughter at Nottingham Crown Court but denied murder, claiming he did not think the family were at home at the time.
On Tuesday, a jury found him guilty of the more severe charges. After seven hours of deliberations, a jury unanimously convicted Barrow of three counts of murder and arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
A neighbour who killed a mother and her two daughters by setting fire to their home has been found guilty of their murders.
— Nottinghamshire Police (@nottspolice) July 4, 2023
Read the full press release on our website: https://t.co/tHR4teWcUT pic.twitter.com/LI8xPvvWGP
The jurors were told that he was unhappy about bags of rubbish being left in the alleyway behind where he and the victims lived but police said no clear motive had been established, BBC reported. The prosecutors said Barrow knew the flat's front door was the only way in and out when he set the fire.
He also told jurors he did not know the family were inside the first-floor flat when he used petrol to set fire to the property.
Barrow lit the fire after filling a bottle with petrol from his motorbike and pouring it through his victims' letterbox before lighting it with tissue paper, according to a release by Nottingham Shire Police.
The family was rushed to Queen's Medical Centre, where Fatimah and Naeemah were pronounced dead. Mrs Hydara died two days later.
Ms Hydara and her daughters died from smoke inhalation.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, grieving husband Aboubacarr Drammeh revealed his wife and their two daughters had planned to join him in America, where he worked as a biomedical technologist.
After setting the house on fire, the man was seen on CCTV walking away from the burning flat with his dog while smoking a cigarette, the Nottingham Shire Police said.
He later admitted drinking "seven or eight" pints of lager before starting the fire.
In the court, he claimed that he had suffered from a "very, very low mood" before starting the fire.
The 31-year-old will be sentenced on Friday (7 July 2023)
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