A British man who killed a Gambian mum and her two daughters by setting their flat on fire has been found guilty of murder.

Fatoumatta Hydara, 28, died along with Fatimah and Naeemah Drammeh, aged three and one, after their home in Clifton, Nottingham, UK, was set alight in November.

Jamie Barrow, 31, had admitted their manslaughter at Nottingham Crown Court 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.

Jurors were told he was unhappy about bags of rubbish being left in an alleyway behind where he and the victims lived but police said no clear motive had been established.

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.

Ms Hydara and her daughters died from smoke inhalation.

Prosecutors said Barrow had lit the fire using tissue paper and petrol from his motorbike.

They said it would have been clear the family were inside because a pram was left outside the door and there was light coming from the hallway.

After setting the fire Barrow was seen on CCTV walking away from the burning flat with his dog while smoking a cigarette, police said. 

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.

(BBC)