Fatal fire accused 'terrified' of being blamed

A man allegedly recruited to help start a house fire which killed a woman and her three children is "terrified" of being blamed, his barrister has said.

Calum Sunderland, 26, is said to have been enlisted by Sharaz Ali, 40, to start a fire at the house where Mr Ali's ex-girlfriend, Antonia Gawith, was staying in Westbury Road, Bradford, in August 2024.

Antonia Gawith escaped the blaze but her sister Bryonie, 29, and her children Denisty, nine, Oscar, five, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle died in the fire.

In his closing speech, Mr Sunderland's barrister Nicholas Worsley KC said his client "couldn't bear to be thought of as someone capable of doing what was being alleged".

Prosecutors allege Mr Sunderland was recruited by Mr Ali as part of a revenge plot against Antonia Gawith.

Ring doorbell camera footage has been played in court which showed Mr Sunderland walking up to the house holding a petrol canister and then kicking the door down when told to by Mr Ali, before running off.

Mr Ali is then said to have gone into the house and started pouring petrol around inside before starting a "catastrophic" blaze which killed Bryonie Gawith and her three children, who were all upstairs.

In his evidence, Mr Sunderland said he did not know anyone was in the house, saying he thought he was going to "burn a car" in exchange for "a few hundred pounds" to buy drugs.

On Monday, Mr Worsley said Mr Sunderland was a "deeply flawed, pathetic, damaged and devastated individual" who "knows he played a part in what unfolded that awful night".

He said his client was "terrified at the prospect of being held to blame for the deaths of those four individuals."

The court has heard that Mr Sunderland was addicted to crack cocaine, would break windows for money and was convicted of arson for setting a car on fire, a job he said he had done for Mr Ali's friends.

"These things do not make him someone who would set out to burn a house or help someone do that. Not if it meant killing someone, was Calum Sunderland's response to that," Mr Worsley said.

Referring to the changing and untrue accounts of what happened in his client's police interviews the barrister said he had been "reacting in a feral way, like a child would if they had broken something, denying everything in the face of the obvious".

He said: "He was trying to distance himself from something so horrible and so dreadful he just couldn't cope with the allegations.

"He couldn't bear to be thought of as someone capable of doing what was being alleged."

He said the fact "someone had addiction issues does not mean they lose all possible sense of morals".

Mr Ali, of no fixed address, and Mr Sunderland, of Calton Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire, deny four counts of murder, the attempted murder of Antonia Gawith and attempting to cause her grievous bodily harm.

Mohammed Shabir, 45, who drove Mr Ali and Mr Sunderland to the house and had been due to go on trial with them, died of a heart attack while on remand.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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