29 years for ‘coward’ who killed a mum and her two children in Bradford house fire

A MAN who set fire to a house in Bradford, killing a mother and her two young children, has been told he must serve a minimum of 29 years in prison by a judge who said he did an “evil and cowardly thing”.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Feb 2011, 15:36 BST

Asjid Mahmood, now 22, showed no emotion as he was jailed for life at Bradford Crown Court for the murder of Iram Shah and her children Alina, 10, and Aman, eight.

The children were killed when a blaze started by Mahmood swept through their home in Bradford last July.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Their mother was seriously injured when she jumped to escape the smoke and flames and died later in hospital.

Mahmood’s brother, Arshed Mahmood, 18, was jailed for 17 years for three counts of manslaughter.

The judge, Mr Justice Coulson, told the brothers: “To light a fire in the small hours of the night at the back door of a domestic property was an evil and a cowardly thing to do and had inevitably tragic consequences.”

During a two-week trial last month, Asjid admitted setting fire to petrol-soaked paper at the back door of the family’s home in Hendford Drive in the early hours of July 6 last year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The jury was told the blaze was started by Asjid Mahmood after an increasingly bitter dispute between him and Zaheer Shah - the ex-husband of Iram Shah and father of the two children - around a car Mr Shah and Asjid Mahmood had bought together to hire out.

A jury of seven men and five women took four hours to find Asjid Mahmood guilty of murder last month.

They cleared his brother of the more serious charge but found him guilty of manslaughter.