Mr Drammeh was in the US when Barrow murdered his wife and daughters, aged three and one
By Dan Martin and PA news agency
BBC News
A man who killed a mother and her two young daughters by setting fire to their flat has been branded a “coward” by her husband.
Fatoumatta Hydara and children Fatimah and Naeemah Drammeh died after Jamie Barrow poured petrol through the letterbox of their Nottingham flat and set it alight, trapping them inside.
Barrow, 31, will be sentenced for their murder at Nottingham Crown Court later.
Aboubacarr Drammeh addressed him directly in court.
He said Barrow’s actions in setting fire to the family’s flat in Fairisle Close, Clifton, in the early hours of 20 November, had plunged him into darkness.
Barrow sat motionless in the dock as Mr Drammeh told him he was “a coward who knew exactly what he was doing and exactly when to do it”.
He said: “I was hopeless, and I was left helpless, because I didn’t have a family, and it was the people who mattered most to me.
“Since then, it has been a downward plunge into darkness and the unknown.
“It was unthinkable, it was unplanned, and I wish this on no-one else, including you.”
Image source, Nottinghamshire Police
Barrow had admitted manslaughter but denied murder
Mr Drammeh, who was working in the US at the time of the fire, was due to return to the UK a week after the blaze so the family could attend an interview for their visa application at the US Embassy in London, as part of their plans to emigrate.
Instead, he flew back to the UK and spent his 40th birthday identifying his children’s bodies in a hospital mortuary.
He said: “Two little angels, their lifeless bodies laying next to each other. I held their cold hands. I wished I could switch with them.
“Only Allah knows why. I have to accept and prepare for the next chapter of my life. All I can say is I am sorry.
“I was not there, I should have been.
“I had a responsibility as a father and a husband to protect, that was my basic responsibility. I make no excuses.
“Because of you, and only you, I failed in my only responsibility as a father.”
Mr Drammeh added: “I have no hatred to anybody in the world, including you, your actions I hate, [but] you as a human being, no.”
On Tuesday a jury unanimously found Barrow, who lived in the same building as the family, guilty of the murders and also a count of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered after the defendant had previously admitted manslaughter.
He had denied murder on the grounds that he thought the flat was empty when he lit the fire.
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