The mother, who was “struck on the head and set on fire,” escaped the blaze with her daughter by jumping out of a window, police said
Credit: Staffordshire Police
NEED TO KNOW
- Ten men have received sentences for their varying roles in a 2021 house fire that left a mother and daughter seriously injured
- A judge and prosecutor described the fire as a deliberate act of revenge following a street fight earlier that day at the Sept. 25 sentencing of the final seven men involved
- The 10 men received sentences totaling more than 130 years for their roles in the incident, while the mother will continue to need lifelong medical care
Ten men were sentenced to more than a century behind bars for playing various roles in a house fire that left a girl injured and another woman in a coma.
Staffordshire Police announced on Friday, Sept. 25, that all of the men in the group responsible for the late 2021 blaze in Stoke-on-Trent, England, were sentenced, bringing their total sentence to more than 130 years.
Seven men were sentenced on Friday, joining three others who had previously been sentenced in connection with the devastating fire — which both the judge and prosecutor described as a deliberate act of revenge, according to The Sentinel.
The Dec. 16, 2021, incident began earlier in the day, police said, when Kashif Ahmed was stabbed in the shoulder after a street fight “broke out” between him and three other men — Naveed Hussain, Bilal Ahmed and Ali Abbas — in the town of Longton around 4 p.m. local time.
Nearly seven hours after the fight, police said a group of men went to a house in Stoke-on-Trent “demanding to speak to” Hussain, whom prosecutors said stabbed Kashif, and began smashing in windows and pouring petrol in multiple areas of the home, police said.
Credit: Staffordshire Police
At the home, a 31‑year‑old woman — who was described in court as being romantically linked to Hussain, according to The Sentinel — was then “struck on the head and set on fire,” police said. She and her 13-year-old daughter, who was also home at the time, smashed upstairs windows and jumped out to escape the flames, according to police.
Despite escaping out of the window, the daughter suffered 15% burns to her right arm in the fire, while her mother suffered 65% burns and “was not expected to survive but did,” Staffordshire Police said Friday.
The mother sustained several other injuries — including a broken pelvis, broken ribs and a lacerated liver — and was in a coma for two months, police said. She later had to relearn how to walk and “continues to require lifelong medical treatment.”
Both a prosecutor and judge at the sentencing said the fire was an act of revenge after Hussain injured Kashif in the fight.
“The fire was started as a deliberate act of revenge which concerned Naveed Hussain,” Prosecutor Siobhan Collins said in court, per The Sentinel, noting that he “was the woman’s ex and visited her and her daughter at that home periodically.”
The stabbing earlier in the day, the prosecutor said, “established the foundations for the revenge attack” at the Stoke-on-Trent residence.
“It is clear when that was put in motion the intended victim was Naveed Hussain,” she said, according to the outlet. “Within moments of the wounding of Kashif Ahmed, members of the group who were involved in the revenge attack set about calling in the support of others.”
Credit: Staffordshire Police
During Friday’s sentencing, Judge Rupert Mayo said it was “virtually impossible to imagine a more horrific scene than that the victim faced” as the men arrived to start the fire.
“She was at home with her 13-year-old daughter. The Christmas tree was up in the living room. Her daughter was on her phone upstairs. The victim was relaxing in her home in Beverley Drive,” the judge said, per The Sentinel. “Unbeknown to her, her partner had been involved in a street fight earlier that day in the south of the city.”
“This was deliberate revenge for the relatively minor injury to Kashif Ahmed,” the judge added.
Staffordshire Police said CCTV footage, digital evidence and forensic work were used to determine the role each man played in the attack. Detective Constable Howard Davies said in a statement on Friday that through these methods, investigators “were able to build a clear picture of the roles played by those involved and present compelling evidence before the court.”
Shakil Uddin was sentenced to 34 years after being found guilty of one count of attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life, and Haris Mahmood was sentenced to more than 24 years after admitting two counts of attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life.
Both Riyadh Iqbal and Lukman Khan received sentences totaling more than 12 years after being found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent and arson with intent to endanger life.
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Muhammad Sufyaan‑Shah and Tayyeb Majeed were sentenced to 11 years and six months and 10 years and six months, respectively, after being found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent.
On the lower end of the sentences, Kashif Ahmed spent 48 weeks in jail, and Bilal Ahmed was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment and suspended for 18 months after both men pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
Hussain was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and suspended for 18 months after pleading guilty to violent disorder and possession of a knife blade/sharp pointed article in a public place.
In his statement on Friday, Davies said: “These sentences mark the conclusion of a lengthy and complex investigation into an extremely serious and violent series of events that left a mother with life‑changing injuries. The level of violence displayed that evening was truly shocking, culminating in a deliberate and reckless act that put lives at grave risk.”
“I want to acknowledge the incredible strength and resilience shown by the victims, who have endured unimaginable physical and emotional trauma,” the detective constable added of the mother and daughter injured in the fire. “My thoughts remain firmly with them as they continue their recovery.”
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