Bradford<\/a>.<\/p>\nAli, 40, was \u201cmotivated by jealousy and fuelled by drink and drugs\u201d when he turned up at the house in the early hours of 21 August 2024.<\/p>\n
Antonia, who had ended an abusive seven-year relationship with Ali, managed to escape the fire but Bryonie and her three children died.<\/p>\n
Bryonie Gawith and her three children, Denisty, Oscar and Aubree. Photograph: West Yorkshire police\/PA<\/p>\n
Sentencing Ali to a whole-life order \u2013 meaning he will never be released from prison \u2013 the judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, said Ali\u2019s intention was to \u201cwipe out a family\u201d.<\/p>\n
He told Doncaster crown court that the three children were \u201cacceptable collateral damage\u201d for Ali because he was \u201cso full of hatred for Bryonie\u201d, whom he blamed for the breakup with Antonia.<\/p>\n
Antonia tearfully told the hearing that Bryonie\u2019s children were \u201cmy babies, my joy\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cWhat haunts me the most is the attack was meant for me. I was the target; petrol was poured on me and my life was meant to end that night. I can\u2019t escape the thought that I was spared when they were taken. How can I move on when they never had the chance to?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sobs could be heard from family members in the public gallery as Antonia said Bryonie \u201chad warmth that could fill a room and a heart so big she would give the world away if she could\u201d.<\/p>\n
Calum Sunderland, 27, a crack-cocaine addict who went with Ali to the house and kicked in the door for him, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years for manslaughter.<\/p>\n
The judge said Bryonie \u201cacted with immense courage\u201d by staying in the house with her children when she saw Ali pouring petrol around.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough she must have known what Mr Ali was going to do, there was no way she was going to run out of the house and desert her children,\u201d he said. \u201cShe remained at the top of the stairs to protect them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBryonie acted with immense courage. I hope that will be how her family will remember her last moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge said \u201csubstantial premeditation\u201d went into the murders, adding: \u201cI\u2019m sure, on all the evidence, that [Ali] had determined to burn down the house and anyone in it, including the children, if Antonia did not change her mind. She did not do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he was sure that Sunderland \u201cknew the house was occupied\u201d and agreed to an \u201cextraordinarily dangerous\u201d scheme, adding: \u201cHe played with fire and four people died as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the trial, Antonia Gawith described trying to get upstairs to her sister and the children, but being kept away as she was still covered in petrol. \u201cThey said it wasn\u2019t safe. I was just begging them all and screaming and crying, and I just wanted to save them and I just couldn\u2019t. I couldn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t let me go up \u2013 I just wanted to be with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the sentencing hearing, DCI Stacey Atkinson, who led the investigation, said Ali knew the children were in the house and \u201cknew they had no way of escape\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ali, a drug dealer, was rescued from the fire by police officers but suffered serious injuries and was initially not expected to survive. He was put on trial last year after coming out of a coma and recovering enough to be charged.<\/p>\n
Jurors were told that Ali suffered burns to 70% of his body, that two fingers on each of his hands had been amputated, and that he still used oxygen and had difficulty speaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who killed his ex-partner\u2019s sister and her three children by setting fire to their house has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-461272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}