The court heard Barrow had drunk “seven or eight” cans of lager before getting fuel from his motorbike and setting fire to his neighbours’ flat in Fairisle Close.
While he said he believed the property was empty, his trial was told a pram in the hallway showed the family was at home, with prosecutors claiming he did nothing when he heard their screams.
Barrow was seen on CCTV walking away from the burning flat with his dog while smoking a cigarette before returning to the scene and asking emergency services about the severity of the blaze.
When defending himself in court, he said he was “wallowing in self-pity” before starting the fire, citing his emotionally unstable personality disorder, and said he suffered “an immense amount of guilt” for causing the deaths.
After he was sentenced, the family of the deceased said Barrow’s actions were “utterly heartless and cruel”, and had “caused a multigenerational trauma that we will never understand”.
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