Neighbour admits killing mother and daughters in house fire

Fatoumatta Hydara died two days after her daughters Naeemah Drammeh and Fatimah Drammeh

A man who started a fire that killed his neighbour and her two children has admitted three charges of manslaughter.

One-year-old Naeemah Drammeh and Fatimah Drammeh, aged three, died in hospital after the blaze in Fairisle Close, Clifton, Nottingham, on 20 November.

Their mother, 28-year-old Fatoumatta Hydara, died two days later.

Jamie Barrow, of Fairisle Close, admitted the charges when he appeared at Nottingham Crown Court.

He was also charged with three counts of murder but has pleaded not guilty to these, and is due to stand trial at the same court on 12 June.

The 31-year-old also pleaded not guilty to one count of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered on Friday.

Jamie Barrow has admitted manslaughter but denies murder

An inquest opened in December and heard the victims died from smoke inhalation.

Ms Hydara's husband, Aboubacarr Drammeh, was in the US at the time of the fire.

Mr Drammeh was planning to move his family to Minnesota, where he works as a biomedical technologist.

He previously said he would never get over spending his 40th birthday, in November, in a hospital mortuary, adding "that was just so hard".

Aboubacarr Drammeh and Fatoumatta Hydara, originally from Gambia, married in 2014

He described his wife as "caring and very compassionate".

She moved to Nottingham at the age of 14 with her Gambian parents, had worked for St John Ambulance and at care homes, and wanted to pursue a career in women's health, her husband said.

Mr Drammeh said his three-year-old daughter Fatimah enjoyed playing and children's TV.

"She loved nursery rhymes and when on FaceTime with me she'd make me do the 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' song," he said.

He described daughter Naeemah, who turned one in July, as someone who also brought him a huge amount of joy.

"They were both really happy children," he said.

Tributes to the victims were left outside the flat in Fairisle Close in Clifton, Nottingham