Two jailed for life over botched revenge attack

Two men have been jailed for life over a botched revenge attack in which the wife and three children of a Dublin-based surgeon were killed.

Tristan Richards (22) was told he would serve a minimum of 35 years for his part in the murders of Shehnila Taufiq (47), her daughter Zainab (19) and sons Bilal (17) and Jamal (15).

His accomplice Kemo Porter (19) was given a 25 year minimum term.

The two were convicted at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday after a two-month trial during which the jury heard that the family died when their home in Wood Hill, Leicester, was mistakenly set alight in what police called a “misguided and impulsive” attack last September.

The killers had intended to target a different house in Wood Hill, Leicester, as they sought to avenge the fatal stabbing of a friend hours earlier.

Dublin-based neurosurgeon Dr Muhammad Taufiq al-Sattar was woken by gardaí on the day of the incident, who informed him of the deaths. He rushed to Leicester to be at the scene.

When sentencing the men, Mr Justice John Griffith Williams said it was a "premeditated and planned attack".

“The defendants were out for really significant revenge”, he said. Richards had gone to the scene with the petrol and Porter with the lighter, the court heard.

“The horror of what then happened is all too apparent,” the judge said. “The quantity of petrol and the pouring of petrol through the letterbox provide the evidence the plan was that the house was to be consumed by fire, which took hold instantly and spread upstairs...There was, and could not have been, any escape from that ferocious fire.”

Six other men who were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter over the deaths were also each handed jail terms at the court today.

They are Shaun Carter (24), of Franche Road, Leicester; Nathaniel Mullings (19), of Farringdon Street, Northfield, Leicester; Jackson Powell (20), of Burnside Road, Leicester; Aaron Webb (20), of Saltersford Road, Leicester; Akeem Jeffers (21), of Carr Mills, Buslingthorpe, Leeds and 17-year-old Cairo Parker, from Leicester.

Carter was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Mullings was handed 15 years detention in a young offender institution. Webb, Powell and Jeffers were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Parker, on account of his age, was given eight years detention.

Speaking outside court, Dr Taufiq said he was "satisfied at the sentence and I accept everything".

“My family is with me 24/7 spiritually and these are the main motives for me,” he said. “My own belief, religion, my God and my family are with me and these are the main motives for me to continue which I have been doing for the last nine months and will continue until my last breath.

“I’m going back to Dublin tonight where I will continue working at the hospital as well as helping at the community centre.”

He said that he had decided to sell the house in Leicester, which had been uninsured at the time of the blaze.

PA