Jamie Barrow has been found guilty of the murders of a mum and her little girls after setting fire to their flat when he poured petrol through their letterbox? Legal Affairs Correspondent Rebecca Sherdley followed the trial.
It would be an understatement to say Barrow was not a troubled individual, with a wretched childhood, and serious behavioural issues.
In fact, his trial at Nottingham Crown Court, barely heard anything good about him as a person, which is tragic in itself. A bearded Barrow, listened through a hearing loop to the evidence during the trial at Nottingham Crown Court, wearing a pale grey top and bottoms, and a smart pair of glasses.
As the evidence unfolded, he moved from the centre of the dock to the corner, as if he was shielding himself from the anguished glances of the grieving family of Fatoumatta Hydara and her two daughters, three-year-old Fatimah Drammeh and one-year-old Naeemah Drammeh, who he killed with fire - fire being a fascination of his and a stress reliever.
Read more: Jamie Barrow updates as murder trial enters its fourth day
Last November, Barrow had been self-harming and drinking heavily before he started the fire - the billowing toxic fumes from the petrol engulfing the young family's flat as they slept, and leaving them with no means of escape.
Barrow lit the fire after filling a bottle with petrol from his motorbike and pouring it through his victims’ letterbox before lighting it with tissue paper, later asking a housing officer whether he could receive compensation for smoke damage to his property.
But while being questioned by his defence KC, Christopher Henley, Barrow said he believed the flat to be empty and had no intention of harming anyone, adding that while he “can’t explain” why he targeted Mrs Hydara’s flat, he “didn’t think it would cause any harm”.
He said he had not seen or heard from any of the flat’s occupants for “three or four days”, and so targeted it as he had “formed the opinion that they were not in”.
Barrow, who has Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD), had been suffering from a “very, very low mood” in the days and hours before his actions, deciding to light the fire after “an elastic band snapped” in his head.
He said: “I got a bottle, took the lid off it, put some gloves on, went downstairs, filled the bottle with petrol and then went round to the address and started the fire.”
He added: “It wasn’t until I started filling it [the bottle] that I realised what I was going to set fire to. I knew I was going to set fire to something, I just didn’t know what.
“I can’t explain why I picked the victim’s flat. I have got no explanation for that. It wasn’t a thought as much as it was an impulse.”
Mrs Hydara and her two children were away from the property for three days, returning to the first-floor flat on the afternoon of November 19, before Barrow started the fire in the early hours of November 20.
After lighting the fire, Barrow said he “panicked” as he “was not expecting it to go up like that”, but he denied hearing any noises or screams, something prosecutors say could be heard from inside the flat seconds after the fire started.
He said that he would have “raised the alarm” if he had heard noises and “would not have done it” if he knew someone was inside the property in the preceding days.
Sat just feet away from the dock in courtroom six was Mrs Hydara’s husband, and the father of Fatima and Naeema, Aboubacarr Drammeh. Mr Hydara was surrounded by family in the packed courtroom where the evidence was heard about the type of man who had lived next door to his wife and his beautiful children.
CCTV was played from a camera a distance away from the family home in Fairisle Close, Clifton, as the fire took hold, with a single scream piercing the darkness as the rain pattered down. As the family dissolved into tears hearing the distressing footage, one person in the public gallery stormed towards Barrow in the dock and shouted, "******* *******".
Whilst Mrs Drammeh's husband worked in the United States, he visited his wife and daughters at their flat often. He was trying to arrange for them to join him in the US.
Little did they know next door was a man who was a ticking timebomb, whose doctor's notes recorded that "his mood switched at the drop of a hat", and he had a dangerous fascination with fire.
Barrow's background
Barrow had lived with his mother up to the age of about eight years, then moved in with his grandmother between the ages of eight and 14. From the ages of 14 to 18 years, he was living in care.
Barrow told Dr Vivek Furtado, a forensic psychiatrist, he was disruptive, angry and violent during his time in care, and he would go from 0 to 100 very quickly.
He said he was irrationally angry, that he would smash stuff up and that he was violent towards others. The jury heard, whilst at school, Barrow would 'kick off' - which was the way he expressed it. He spent some time isolated at behavioural units
He had lots of suspensions and exclusions. At one stage, he got into a physical fight with a teacher.
A second psychiatrist, a Dr Kennedy, recorded in his interview with the defendant that he talked about a number of occasions during the course of his life where he had used violence against other people. He told Dr Kennedy by the time of the fire, he was drinking every other day between 3pm and 5pm.
He had been on the antidepressant, Citalopram, and was prescribed an anti-psychotic - but stopped taking this six to eight months before the fire. The anti-psychotic helped to reduce negative thoughts he was having and self-harm urges.
Barrow started his first fire when he was just 14 years old
By adulthood, Barrow had been diagnosed with anti-social personaility disorder and borderline or emotionally unstable personaility disorder. He had always been impulsive and experienced frequent mood changes - and he had always had an interest in fires, and he liked sitting and watching the fires burn.
From the age of about 11, he discovered fire had this affect on him, and started his first one when he was just 14 years old.
He set bonfires regularly and said it was soothing for him. When he was 14 or 15 years, Barrow had threatened to set a person on fire using a deodorant can. He went on to say, 'then I set a fire at the back of the children's home and sat watching it for hours'.
Barrow also said when he was younger he had caused harm to animals. He told Dr Kennedy he had set fire as it always helped with stress and Barrow said 'it has always been cathartic'.
Simon Ash KC, prosecuting, had asked Dr Furtado, if Barrow said: "When it goes up, it is always a sense of release..like the stress is going".
Dr Furtado replied: "Yes, that's correct".
Mr Ash asked: "Did he say, 'the more it goes, the more mesmorized I get'. Dr Furtado replied: "Yes, that's correct".
One neighbour of Barrow's said he knew he wanted to move from 19 Fairisle Close and he wanted to be nearer his son. Friends, neighbours and his aunt all said the defendant suffered from his mental health.
One neighbour said he "angered quickly" - and six months before the fire she said the defendant started to get more angry - like things were going over in his mind - but he never discussed anything with her.
The defendant told the jury he had started fires previously - because fire mesmorizes him and, ultimately, he said it chills him out.
He threatened to set fire to a person with a deodorant can
Mrs Justice Tipples told the jury at Barrow's trial, where he denied three charges of murder of the Mrs Hydara and her children, and arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered: "The defendant told you that he had a long history of having problems with anger, which is referenced in his medical records, and sometimes he experiences urges to harm himself and sometimes his experiences violent urges to harm others," said the judge.
"He told you on one occasion, when he was 14 or 15 years old, he threatened to set fire to a person with a deodorant can - and that was an example of causing violence to others using fire. He said he then went to light a fire and watched it for a few hours.
"The defendant told you on his 18th birthday, in October 2019, he went out for a drink and he started thinking about the past and about how much he had gone through, and hoping it would be a start for a new chapter. It started to be a trigger for getting into a fight, which he then lost, and he went back to where he was then staying and he was really angry.
"He said he picked up lighter fluid, he was a smoker at the time time, and had the lighter on him". He used the lighter fluid to set fire to an industrial bin - the biggest fore he had set before the tragic events in Fairisle Close."
