Man guilty of murdering mum and three children in ‘revenge’ house fire attack

A man who tried to murder his former partner in a house fire that killed her sister and three young children is facing a life sentence.

Sharaz Ali, 40, was ‘motivated by jealousy’ when he burst into Bryonie Gawith’s Bradford home looking for her sister Antonia, who had gone to live there after ending their abusive relationship.

Woken by the sound of the front door being kicked in, Antonia came downstairs to find Ali pouting petrol all over the house before he doused them both in it.

She fled the property hoping Ali would be drawn out after her, but he used a lighter to start the ‘catastrophic’ fire which quickly engulfed the building.

The first police officers on the scene bravely ran inside looking for survivors before firefighters arrived to extinguish the blaze.

While Ali was rescued, it was too late to save Bryonie, 29, or her children Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, who all died in their beds.

Ali was today found guilty of four counts of murder and one of attempted murder following a trial at Doncaster Crown Court.

Convicted arsonist Calum Sunderland, 26, was cleared of murder but found guilty of four counts of manslaughter for his role in breaking in.

Ring doorbell footage captured Ali telling Sunderland, who was carrying the petrol and a lighter, to ‘kick the door in’, which he did before running back to the car.

Mohammed Shabir, 45, who had been due to go on trial with them, died of a heart attack after collapsing in prison.

Opening the case to jurors, prosecutor David Brooke KC said the three men drove from Keighley to Bryonie’s house on Westbury Road just before 2am, stopping to buy a seven-litre can of petrol on the way.

When they arrived Antonia, who had finished her shift at Tesco at 12.30am, was with Bryonie in the main bedroom upstairs.

Mr Brooke said Bryonie had fallen asleep but Antonia was still awake and started to walk downstairs when she heard a noise.

She saw the door being kicked in and a man in a tracksuit run off before Ali ran straight into the house and began pouring petrol on her.

Mr Brooke said: ‘She fought with him trying to stop him and to get the petrol and lighter off him and then ran outside, screaming for help, hoping that he would follow her out.

‘She quickly realised that he hadn’t followed her and so she ran back to the house.’

Antonia saw Bryonie, who had woken up, kick Ali as he was walking up the stairs.

Mr Brooke said: ‘She managed to wrestle the container from him but he lit the lighter and a fire started including himself, the stairs and her sister.

‘She ended up outside the closed front door and was then unable to get back inside.

‘She ran around the back of the house but the back door had been jamming and she couldn’t get it open despite her kicking it.’

Footage played in court captured Antonia running out screaming for help and Shabir and Sunderland driving away before the fire ‘exploded into life’.

The court heard the fire was too strong for any neighbours to help, and, when police arrived six minutes later, flames were engulfing the front of the house, and it was too late to save Bryonie and the children.

Mr Brooke said some of the footage had been edited to mute screaming, which may have been from one of the children.

He told the court: ‘It’s possible that one was woken by the noise going on and was frightened by the sound of the explosion.

‘When the fire officers went in, the children were all still found in their beds.’

Mr Brooke said: ‘Sharaz Ali was himself caught by his own actions and was later pulled out of the house by the police badly injured.’

Jurors heard Ali was placed into an induced coma for months before his recovery began.

When he was well enough to be interviewed by police he chose to make no comment to all questions.

Mr Brooke told jurors Ali was ‘motivated by jealousy and fuelled by drink and drugs’ when he ‘decided to take revenge on his ex-partner Antonia regardless of the potential consequences for others’.

‘We, the prosecution, say that when you look at what he did, there is only one sensible conclusion that can be reached,’ he said.

‘That he went to the house at 2am intending to kill at least Antonia Gawith by burning the house down.

‘Tragically, he killed her sister and three small children and there is some evidence to suggest that he was also deliberately targeting Antonia’s family.’

Mr Brooke said in the days before the fire Ali had sent messages to Antonia saying: ‘I know who caused this in my life and deep down you do too,’ as well as one referring to: ‘You and your whore sister.’

The prosecutor said: ‘When it comes to motivation, you don’t just have Antonia’s evidence, you have those texts, setting out clear as could be the anger, the resentment, the self-pity, the drunkenness, the threats.’

Mr Brooke told the court that Ali ‘must have known’ the children were at home, saying: ‘He didn’t care who was there – he wanted to inflict maximum damage on anyone he could find in that house.’

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