Second suspect in Bradford house fire murders 'told he was going to torch a car'
A 26 year old man - allegedly recruited to start a house fire in Bradford last year - has been giving evidence at trial
A convicted arsonist who was allegedly recruited for a house fire murder plot that killed a mother and her three children has told a court he thought he was just going to torch a car.
Prosecutors say Sharaz Ali enlisted the help of crack cocaine addict Calum Sunderland for a botched revenge attack on his former partner Antonia Gawith.
It is alleged Ali deliberately set fire to the home of Antonia's sister, Bryonie Gawith, where Antonia was staying after ending their "abusive relationship".
Doncaster Crown Court has heard that after Ali went into the house and started pouring petrol around inside, as well as on himself and Antonia, she ran outside in an attempt to lure him out.
Ali, 40, stayed in the house and used a lighter to start a "catastrophic" blaze which killed Bryonie and her three children, who were all upstairs, it is claimed.
Sunderland, 26, is seen on ring-doorbell camera footage walking up to the house holding the petrol canister, kicking the door down when instructed by Ali, and then running off.
On Monday Sunderland, who is on trial alongside Ali, said he had been recruited to "burn a car" and would never have gone if he had known there were people in the house.
Sunderland said he used to break car windows for money, which he would use to buy drugs, and was once paid £150 by a friend of Ali's to torch a car - an incident which resulted in him being convicted of arson.
Sunderland said he was "not really" friends with Ali, but had drunk with him before, and taken cocaine with him "twice at most".
He said on the night of the fire, he was approached by Ali and his friend Mohammed Shabir, and Ali asked him if he wanted to make some money.
Sunderland told the court: "He asked me to go light up a car...He said he would pay me a few hundred pounds.
"I said yeah, because I wanted some money."
He said Shabir drove the three of them from Keighley to Bradford, stopping at a petrol station on the way where Ali told Sunderland to fill a canister with petrol.
Sunderland said he did not know whose car he was going to torch, and did not ask.
He said when they arrived at the house on Westbury Road, Ali told him the residents were on holiday and they would have to go through the house to get the car out of the garage.
Asked by Nicholas Worsley KC, defending, what he thought he was going to do, Sunderland said: "Go burn a car."
He told jurors: "As soon as we got on the driveway there was no car.
"(Ali) asked me to kick the door down, but I didn't really want to kick the door down.
"I said something to him and he said if you don't do what I was I won't give you your money.
"So I kicked the door but when I kicked the door there was someone on the stairs shouting, so I ran off.
"If I'd known that (there was anyone in the house) I wouldn't have kicked the door."
Sunderland said he thought Ali had fled as well when he returned to the car, and he and Shabir drove back to Keighley, with Shabir giving him "a couple of quid and a few cigs" before he left.
He said he did not see anyone in the street shouting because he had his head down, and did not find out about the fire until two days later.
He told the court he took an overdose before he was arrested, saying: "I wanted to go to sleep and never wake up...Because four people had just died."
Asked about the changing accounts he gave to police in his interviews, Sunderland said he lied because he was scared.
"I didn't want to be accused of murder. I felt ashamed. I felt like it were my fault," he told the court.
Bryonie, 29, and her children: Denisty Birtle, nine; Oscar Birtle, five; and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle; died in the blaze.
Ali, of no fixed address, and Sunderland, of Calton Street, Keighley, are charged with murdering Bryonie and the three children, and attempting to murder Antonia.
Shabir, 45, who had been due to go on trial with them, died of a heart attack while on remand.
The court previously heard that Ali was rescued from the fire by police officers who had arrived at the scene first.
Ali and Sunderland deny the charges and the trial continues.