Mrs. Hydara and her daughters died of smoke inhalation.
A Nottingham man has been found guilty of murdering his neighbor and her two young children by setting their house on fire. The man poured petrol through their letterbox and set their flat on fire while they slept last November.
Jamie Barrow, 33, set fire to the flat of 28-year-old Fatoumatta Hydara 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 the murder, claiming he believed the family were not home at the time.
On Tuesday, a jury found him guilty of the more serious charges. After seven hours of deliberations, a jury unanimously convicted Barrow of three counts of murder and arson as being reckless about whether life was in danger.
A neighbor who killed a mother and her two daughters by burning down their house has been found guilty of their murders.
Read the full press release on our website: https://t.co/tHR4teWcUTpic.twitter.com/LI8xPvvWGP
— Nottinghamshire Police (@nottspolice) July 4, 2023
Jurors were told he was unhappy about leaving garbage bags in the alley where he and the victims lived, but police said no clear motive had been established. BBC reported. Prosecutors said Barrow knew the flat’s front door was the only entrance and exit when he set the fire.
He also told jurors that he was unaware that the family were in the first-floor flat when he used petrol to set fire to the property.
Barrow set the fire after filling a bottle with gasoline from his motorcycle and pouring it through his victims’ mailboxes before lighting it with paper tissues, according to a release from Nottingham Shire Police.
The family was rushed to Queen’s Medical Center where Fatimah and Naeemah were pronounced dead. Mrs. Hydara died two days later.
Mrs. Hydara and her daughters died of smoke inhalation.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, grieving husband Aboubacarr Drammeh revealed that his wife and their two daughters 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 footage walking his dog away from the burning flat while smoking a cigarette, Nottingham Shire police said.
He later admitted to drinking “seven or eight” lager before lighting the fire.
In court, he claimed he suffered from a “very, very depressed mood” before setting the fire.
The 31-year-old will be sentenced on Friday (July 7, 2023).