Neighbor Found Guilty of Murdering Mother and Two Daughters in a Fire at Their Nottingham Flat After a ‘Fight Over Rubbish’

A guy was found guilty of killing a mother and two children by setting fire to their apartment.

Last November, Jamie Barrow filled their letterbox with gasoline and set fire to Fatoumatta Hydara’s apartment in Clifton, Nottingham, together with her daughters Fatimah Drammeh and Naeemah Drammeh.

At a trial at Nottingham Crown Court, prosecutors said that Barrow, who occupied the neighboring apartment in Fairisle Close, had a “grievance” about trash being left in an alleyway and had ignored screams coming from within while watching the fire spread.

In a statement released today, the family of the victims said: “Words cannot express the suffering our family has endured as a result of the heinous deeds of one man.

“Likewise, we are unable to determine the exact financial, physiological, psychological, and emotional toll that Jamie Barrow’s crime against Fatoumatta, Fatima, and Naeemah has had.

“His actions were completely cold and brutal; they have traumatized multiple generations in a way we will never be able to comprehend.

“Fatoumatta was a loving wife, sister, mother, friend, and daughter. She would have lived forever if compassion and love could make someone eternal.

Three-year-old Fatimah and one-year-old Naeemah perished in the fire on November 20, and Mrs. Hydara, 28, passed away two days later from smoke inhalation.

After nearly seven hours of deliberation, the jury of seven men and four women unanimously found Barrow, 31, guilty of murder despite the fact that he had previously confessed manslaughter.

He was also found guilty of committing arson while being careless about whether human life was in risk.

Some members of the victims’ families, who had crowded the public gallery during the proceedings and to whom Barrow apologized while giving evidence, wept after the findings were read. Barrow stayed silent the entire time.

Prosecutor Simon Ash KC told jurors during the trial, which began on June 12, that Barrow “walked casually away” from the fire after lighting petrol taken off his motorcycle and set alight using tissue paper in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Ash said the defendant, who acknowledged to drinking “seven or eight” cans of San Miguel lager before lighting the fire, must have known his victims were home because a pram was placed outside the door and a light came from the corridor.

He went on to say that once the fire started, Barrow “did nothing to help” people trapped inside the first-floor flat.

During his testimony, Barrow stated that he “can’t explain” why he chose to attack the neighboring flat but had concluded that no one was inside because he had neither seen or heard his neighbors in the days preceding the fire.

**Tributes were left at the spot after a fire killed the mother and her two daughters.Photographer: Alamy**

He had been in a “very, very low mood” and “wallowing in self-pity” in the days and hours leading up to his conduct, which was caused in part by his emotionally unstable personality disorder.

He told the court that he did not expect the fire to spread as quickly as it did and that he was compelled to confess to police officers due to “an immense amount of guilt,” telling investigators, “I need to tell you something about the fire next door.”

The jury heard that Barrow found lighting fires “cathartic” and gave “zero” thought to the repercussions of his actions, dismissing his claim that he did not mean to harm anyone when he started the deadly fire.

He had been in a “very, very low mood” and “wallowing in self-pity” in the days and hours leading up to his conduct, which was caused in part by his emotionally unstable personality disorder.

Mrs. thanked the jury for their service.