FacebookA woman who escaped a fatal house fire which killed four members of her family has told a court how a man accused of the murders had doused her in petrol moments earlier.
Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her children Denisty, nine, Oscar, five, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, all died in the blaze on Westbury Road in Bradford on 21 August last year.
Bryonie’s sister Antonia Gawith, who was living with them, said her former partner Sharaz Ali had broke down the door and poured petrol on her before lighting the blaze.
Mr Ali, of Bradford, and Calum Sunderland, 26, of Keighley, deny four counts of murder, the attempted murder of Antonia and attempting to cause her grievous bodily harm.
Police interviews given by Antonia were played to the jury at Doncaster Crown Court earlier.
She said she had been in her sister’s bedroom after finishing work and Mr Ali had been messaging her accusations she had been with another man.
She said Bryonie told her to ignore him and had begun to fall asleep when she heard the doorbell.
“I started walking downstairs and the door was kicked through and Sharaz and another man were stood there, but the man that kicked the door ran straight off,” she told police.
“(Mr Ali) started pouring petrol on me. I was saying ‘please don’t, I love you, I’ll come back, don’t do this’.”
She told police: “I was begging, I would say anything just so he wouldn’t do it.”
She said Mr Ali seemed “angry” and was shouting, but that she could not remember anything he had said
“He just seemed so different. He just didn’t seem himself at all, it was just crazy.”
‘Fire everywhere’
Antonia described trying to get the petrol and lighter from her ex before running out of the house, thinking he would chase her.
“I was screaming for help but he didn’t follow me,” she told police.
She said she then ran back into the property as her her sister kicked Mr Ali down the stairs in an effort to get him out.
“I pulled the petrol off him and tried to get him out, and then he hit the lighter.
“I seen him set on fire, and all the stairs, and my sister.”
She said the door had swung shut and when she opened it there was “fire everywhere”.
“I was scared to go in because I thought I would just burn,” she said.
She said Bryonie, who had rung 999 while coming down the stairs, threw her phone out of the window.
Antonia explained she picked it up and began “shouting down the phone”.
“I was just screaming, trying to get back in the house and I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t save them,” she said tearfully.
Antonia told officers that police arrived and broke through the door, pulling Mr Ali out, but that by the time the fire brigade arrived it was too late to save Bryonie and the children.
She described trying to get upstairs but being kept away as she was still covered in petrol.
“They said it wasn’t safe. I was just begging them all and screaming and crying, and I just wanted to save them and I just couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything.
“They wouldn’t let me go up – I just wanted to be with her. I was covered in petrol, so they were trying to keep me back.”
‘So scared’
In the interview, Antonia described Mr Ali as “quite controlling” and violent towards her during their seven-year relationship.
“He used to drink a lot and take a lot of drugs, cocaine he used to sniff,” she said.
“He used to go out on benders and get drunk and not come home.
“I was just so scared of him. I don’t know why I stayed with him.”
She said during a holiday with her sister just weeks before the fire, Bryonie had said “you need to leave him”.
She said her sister had asked her to stay with her and she told police she felt she had “the confidence and support to finally leave him”.
“The other day I said ‘should I just go back?’ and she (Bryonie) said: ‘Don’t be stupid, you’re finally free of him’.”
The trial continues.
Additional reporting by PA Media
