A man who murdered eight people in a house fire following a long-running and bitter dispute has been jailed for life.
Shahid Mohammed, 37, was convicted of killing five children and three adults in the blaze at the property in Birkby, Huddersfield, in 2002.
On Wednesday he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years at Leeds Crown Court.
Mohammed had been investigated by police at the time but skipped bail and fled to Pakistan prior to a 2003 trial in which several other people were convicted for their involvement in the incident.
During a four-week trial at Leeds Crown Court, jurors heard that the blaze which caused the deaths of eight members of the Chishti family had followed a grudge that the defendant had been “pursuing vigorously”.
Prosecutors said Mohammed, of no fixed address, reacted angrily when his sister, Shahida, became involved in a relationship with a man named Saud Pervez, of whom he did not approve.
One member of the Chishti family, Mohammed Ateeq-ur-Rehman, known as Ateeq, had played an “active part” in the maintaining of their relationship, and was probably the target of the attack on May 12 2002, the court heard.
Jurors were told that petrol bombs were thrown into the property, in Osborne Road, while petrol, believed to have been poured into the home through a nozzle, was ignited.
Sentencing Mohammed, Mr Justice Robin Spencer QC told Leeds Crown Court that, following the attack, the family home was a “burning inferno”.
He said: “Those left behind to grieve will never come to terms with their loss. Words cannot express the depth of their pain and distress.”
The judge said that, had Mohammed not fled to Pakistan, he would have given the family closure and prevented them from waiting more than a decade for justice to be done.
“Instead they have had to live for all these years with the knowledge that one of the men principally responsible for these wicked murders had not been brought to justice,” he added.