Brothers jailed over house fire that took three lives

Asjid Mahmood, now 22, showed no emotion as he was jailed for life at Bradford Crown Court yesterday 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.

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.

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.”

He added: “This was an appalling and horrific crime.”

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. He claimed he was only trying to scare Mrs Shah’s ex-husband, who had left the house only a short time before the fire started.

But the jury was taken through the horror which ensued as the flames ripped through the three-bedroom house.

Mrs Shah’s brother, Mohsan Rasa, described how he was watching TV when the fire started and although he got upstairs to warn the family it was impossible to get back down again.

He said he climbed out of a back window and onto a lower roof where he waited for his sister to pass the children out to him.

But no-one came and the fire was too intense for him to climb back in.

Mr Rasa went round to the front of the house where he saw his sister burning on the ground having jumped from an upstairs window. The distraught mum was shouting for people to save her children as he tried to help her.

Mrs Shah suffered 80 per cent burns and was taken to hospital where she died six days later. Both the children died inside the house despite frantic efforts by neighbours to get into the building.

Andrew Stubbs QC, prosecuting, read sections of a victim impact statement made by Mr Rasa which said: “I feel so helpless I was unable to prevent their deaths.

“ Not a minute goes by in the day that I don’t think about them.

“Every time I close my eyes I still see Iram’s fragile body burnt and broken – still hear her crying for help.

“I will never forget that moment I took her into my arms after she fell out of the window nor forget the intensity with which she looked into my eyes and asked me to save her children. Her eyes were so pleading.”

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. It centred around a car Mr Shah and Asjid Mahmood had bought together to hire out.

Mahmood, of Pollard Lane, Undercliffe, Bradford, claimed Mr Shah had not contributed to the deposit or monthly payments and said Mr Shah had also opened utility bill accounts in his name and had run up large mobile phone bills which he had to pay because his name was on the contract.

He told the court he planned to put an end to the source of his problems by setting fire to the Seat car. When he and his brother failed to find it, he decided to set a fire outside the house.

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.