Father Guilty Of Fatal Arson Attack

A used-car salesman has been found guilty of murdering his estranged wife, their young son and his father-in-law.

The jury heard Danai Muhammadi was fuelled by "spite, anger and resentment'' when he killed his 15-month-old son Noah, Melissa Crook, 20, and her father Mark, 49, at the family home in Chatham.

He and his friend, nightclub bouncer Farhad Mahmud, squirted petrol through the letter box using a garden spray. Mahmud, 35, was also found guilty of three counts of murder.

Muhammadi's new girlfriend, Emma Smith, 21, was cleared of three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder but convicted of three counts of manslaughter after a six-week trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

The two survivors of the arson attack have spoken of the betrayal they feel towards the man they welcomed into their home - and who ended up murdering their family.

Amanda Crook, 50, said she felt "sick'' when she learned Danai Muhammadi was suspected of starting the fire.

She and her son, Bohdan, spoke of their difficulty in comprehending how Muhammadi could have murdered his own family. And they said the tragedy had left them facing their own 'life sentence''.

Looking to the future, the surviving pair said they aimed to cherish life in order to honour their dead relatives and to show those responsible for killing them that they had not won.

Mr Crook said: "We're going to live it as positively as possible because that's how they would have wanted it and it's as simple as that.

"We're going to live our lives to the full for them and we'll try and make a legacy for them as well.''