Jamie Barrow, the man who intentionally set their flat on fire, stands guilty of murder for taking the lives of his neighbour and her two daughters. The victims, Fatimah and Naeemah Drammeh, aged three and one respectively, along with Fatoumatta Hydara, 28, tragically lost their lives when their Clifton, Nottingham, home became engulfed in flames in November.
At Nottingham Crown Court, Jamie Barrow, 31, admitted manslaughter of the two but denied three counts of murder. On Tuesday, a jury found him guilty of the more serious charges.
The trial heard Barrow had poured petrol through the letterbox of the family’s Fairisle Close flat in the early hours of 20 November and set it alight.
The prosecution dismissed the notion that Mrs. Hydara was responsible, and the police acknowledged their failure to establish a clear motive, even though they informed the jurors about his grievance regarding bags of rubbish left in an alleyway behind the residences of him and the victims. Prosecutors said Barrow knew the flat’s front door was the only way in and out when he set the fire.
He had claimed he thought the property was empty but the court was told he did nothing when he heard screams. Mrs Hydara and her daughters died from smoke inhalation. Prosecutors said Barrow had lit the fire using tissue paper and petrol from his motorbike.
CCTV Footage
They asserted that the presence of a pram left outside the door and the illumination coming from the hallway made it evident that the family was inside. After setting the fire, Barrow appeared on CCTV walking away from the burning flat with his dog while smoking a cigarette, as reported by the police.
Emergency services attended the scene and police said Barrow later returned and asked officers “how bad” the fire was.
Barrow, who admitted drinking “seven or eight” pints of lager before starting the fire, had given evidence to the police afterwards when detectives were treating the incident as a hate crime.
He later admitted his involvement to them. In court he claimed he had been suffering from a “very, very low mood” and was “wallowing in self-pity” before starting the fire, caused partially by his emotionally unstable personality disorder.
He expressed that he did not anticipate the blaze to escalate as quickly as it did and felt compelled to admit what he had done to officers due to “an immense amount of guilt.”
In addition to the murder charge, the court convicted Barrow of one count of reckless arson, endangering lives. The court has scheduled his sentencing on Friday at the same court.