Jamie Barrow: Fatal fire murder-accused 'did not know people were in'

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

A man who killed a neighbour and her two daughters by setting fire to their flat has told a court he did not realise they were at home.

Fatoumatta Hydara, 28, died along with Fatimah and Naeemah Drammeh, aged three and one, when their flat in Fairisle Close in Clifton, Nottingham, was set alight on 20 November 2022.

Jamie Barrow told Nottingham Crown Court he was "mesmerised" by flames and used fire to "release stress".

He denies three counts of murder.

The 31-year-old has also pleaded not guilty to one count of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, but admits three counts of manslaughter.

Mr Barrow denies three counts of murder

The court heard Mr Barrow had been looking after his son in early November 2022 after the boy had been in hospital, but during the second week he began suffering with his mental health.

After the boy went to stay with his mother, the defendant said he was "wallowing in self-pity".

"For all intents and purposes I had just given up," he said.

He began drinking more heavily in the days leading up to 19 November, an evening when he said he ended up "contemplating taking my own life".

In messages to a friend the court heard he reported "barely holding on to reality" and feeling like he was "less than pond scum".

He said he was listening to "depressing" music while drinking, later moving on to headphones, and was unaware his neighbour Ms Hydara or her children had returned home that day.

In messages shortly after 00:20 GMT on 20 November he sent a picture of cuts to his arm to a friend, and said he felt as if "the only thing that's going to sort my mind out is a reset".

When asked what he meant by Chris Henley KC, defending him, Mr Barrow said: "The only thing that I could think of resetting it was to die and start again - to get reincarnated."

Mr Barrow said he could not remember everything from the hours leading up to the fire but recalled feeling like "an elastic band went off in my head".

"I knew I was going to set fire to something, I just didn't know what," he told the court.

Jamie Barrow said he did not know anyone was in the flat when he started the fire

The court heard Mr Barrow had struggled with his mental health from a young age.

He said he had suffered "sexual, physical and mental abuse" as a child, and was moved from living with his mother to his grandmother when she held a knife to his throat when he was eight.

After a "relationship breakdown" with his grandmother at 14 he then spent four years in care homes, and it was on his 18th birthday when he started a fire after a fight he realised it had an effect on him.

"It immediately took the rage that I was feeling away," he said.

"I believe that somewhere deep down I must have thought that it was a relaxing thing to start a fire."

Mr Barrow said he also resorted to self-harm and antagonising people into starting fights with him to deal with stress, but said fire had a particular power to calm him down.

"When I sit and watch fire it mesmerises me, and it takes my stress away," he said.

'No intent'

The court heard Mr Barrow told police they needed to speak to him about the fire when they were doing routine interviews with neighbours in the aftermath, which he said was effectively "handing myself in".

However, he denied knowing his neighbours were at home,

"I understand that I'm responsible for the deaths of the three individuals who sadly died, but I had no intent to actually kill them," he said.

He also said there had been no grudge against the victims and dismissed claims made earlier in the trial that there had been an ongoing dispute over dumped rubbish.

The court heard Mr Barrow was diagnosed with a personality disorder in 2013, but while he was regularly taking antidepressants he had stopped taking anti-psychotic medicine last summer due to the side-effects.

"I believed at the time that I could manage without them," he said. "I was wrong."

He added he wanted to apologise to the victims and their family "from the bottom of my heart".

The trial continues.