Arsonist Jamie Barrow has been jailed for life for the murders of an "incredible mother" and her two "angels" - daughters aged 18 months and three years. The judge set Barrow's minimum term, before parole at 44 years after he was found guilty of the murders of Fatoumatta Hydara, aged 28, Fatimah Drammeh, aged three, and 18-month-old Naeemah Drammeh.
Mrs Justice Tipples told Barrow, who showed no emotion, she was quite sure he did what he did because he drank ten to 11 cans of beer.
Her husband, Aboubacarr Drammeh, told Barrow's sentencing hearing on Friday (July 7) how he was left hopeless and helpless - "and it was the people who mattered the most to me". Since then he has been on a downward plunge into a wall of darkness and into the unknown.
He had the task of identifiying the bodies of his daughters - his two "beautiful angels lying next to each other". Mr Drammeh asked Barrow why?
Choking back tears, he said: "The question still remains why?" After two weeks of the trial, "I still don't know why? This is what I want to know...I don't know why?"
Barrow acted like 'judge and jury', he said. He said to pale-faced Barrow in the dock: "I don't know what will happen to you What I do know...most days it feels like I am serving a life sentence. You, Jamie Edwin Barrow, you acted like the judge and jury that night.
"You sentenced me to this. Whatever my life will become..I don't know..you acted like the judge and jury that day". Fatoumatta's mum Aminata Dibba described Barrow in her statement before the court. She wrote: "The day I found out my granddaughters' lives were taken by this monster - it was like at that moment I would be willing to do anything to swap my life for their's".
When she was told her daughter was in ICU, "my heart dropped, I was overcome with confusion, mystery and depression".
When she broke the news to her son-in-law, she heard the painful silence on the other end of the phone.
Barrow was also convicted of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered - after there was a clear threat the fire he started with petrol almost spread to neighbouring homes in Fairisle Close, Clifton. Barrow, who lived in the neighbouring flat, had a 'grievance' over rubbish being left in an alleyway, and watched the fire take hold while ignoring screams coming from inside, prosecutors told Nottingham Crown Court.
The trial heard he 'walked casually away' from the fire and did 'nothing to help' the family trapped inside. Barrow's had admitted their manslaughter, accepting he was legally responsible for the deaths of the devoted family, who died from smoke inhalation, and were pronounced dead at the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham.
Read more: Husband says jury 'did right thing' in convicting Jamie Barrow after fatal fire
The children died in the early hours of November 20 last year after fraught attempts to save them by firefighters and paramedics. Mrs Hydara died two days later.
Chilling footage of the aftermath of the blaze was released by Nottinghamshire Police following Barrow's unanimous conviction on Monday (July 3), showing him smiling as he gave his details nonplussed as the emergency operation got under way around him to try and save the family who he had left to die.
The tragic and heartbreaking compilation of footage included the start of the fire in the distance from a CCTV camera, and showed Barrow's movements going to and from his flat to buy beer from Clifton shops, and him smiling and chatting with a shopkeeper as he bought his booze.
As the young family slept, Barrow used petrol from his motorbike and poured the fluid through their letterbox through a front door, which was their only means of escape. The stairwell up to their tiny first-floor one-bedroom flat acted like a chimney to the thick black smoke which seeped into their home smothering them with the fumes.
Firefighers from stations across the county raced to the scene of the fire, as neighbours evacuated in their night clothes on the street, shocked by the scene of black smoke billowing from the upstairs windows of the family's home.
Barrow even asked one officer, wearing a body camera, 'how bad' the fire is. He spoke to two officers who were in the alley. He said he lived in flat 19 and asked whether he could go into it to get a waterproof coat.
He was told he could not. Over the next 45 minutes he remained nearby and spoke to several police officers. His interactions with the police were recorded by body worn video cameras. He said, more than once, that flat 17, the flat underneath his, was unoccupied.
Each time he spoke to a police officer he appeared calm and composed. He said nothing about the fact he had started the fire. He knew Mrs Hydara and the children had been brought out of their flat by the firefighters, but he did not ask the police anything about them.
Around the time when a Dr Ashmore was certifying the deaths of Fatima and Naeemah, a housing officer for Nottingham City Homes visited the group of people who had been evacuated from flats on Fairisle Close. The defendant wanted to know what would happen if he could not return to his flat as a result of smoke damage.
He wanted to know whether he could be rehoused somewhere else - and whether he could claim compensation from the local authority if any of his personal property, in his flat, had been damaged. Again, he said nothing about the fact that he had started the fire.
Later that morning he phoned police to say he had lost his keys and to ask whether someone could check to see whether they were in the police van. He seemed calm and composed. He said nothing about having started the fire, and did not ask about the condition of Mrs Hydara and her daughters.
The defendant told his aunt there had been a fire, the emergency services had dealt with it, and he had been evacuated to the university campus. He did not say anything about the fact he had started the fire.
Barrow went upstairs and slept in the spare room for about an hour and a half. When he came back downstairs, he and his aunt talked about news reports that two children had died in the fire and that their mother was in a critical condition in hospital.
His aunt said he did not seem unduly upset about what had happened, and Barrow did not say anything about Mrs Hydara or her daughters.
Later, the defendant phoned the police again. He asked whether he could return to his flat and he was told he could. Again he seemed calm and composed. Again he said nothing about having started the fire.
After the verdicts on Monday, July 3, the family of Fatoumatta, Fatimah and Naeemah said in a joint statement: “Words cannot quantify how much our family have suffered because of the horrific actions of one man. Neither can we quantify the emotional, psychological, physiological and financial impact of the crime Jamie Barrow committed against Fatoumatta, Fatimah and Naeemah.
“His actions were utterly heartless and cruel – and have caused a multigenerational trauma that we will never understand.
“She had a pure heart and was greatly loved for her personality and qualities. She was the most incredible mother to Fatimah and Naeemah, two angels who deserved a beautiful childhood and a full life.
“Nottingham and the rest of the world have been denied potential future teachers, civil servants, doctors – who knows what they could have been?
“They lived a short but meaningful life, such was the joy and happiness they brought to us all.
“People repeatedly ask us how we as a family managed to stay calm and composed in the court room, the only true answer to this is the strength and patience given to us by Allah and our Khalifa as he always advises us to follow the law of the country and to stay steadfast.
“We have also received a great sense of companionship from our community the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jammat. The overwhelming support given to us by our Gambian Community here in the UK and around the world has encouraged us to keep calm and patient.
“We are extremely grateful and thankful to our family and friends, as well as the different communities within Nottingham that came together to give us support. This includes multiple communities all from different ethnicities and backgrounds.
“We also wish to thank the police investigation team, the Crown Prosecution Service, prosecution counsel and members of the jury for delivering the justice today’s verdicts provide.”
