A woman whose jealous ex-boyfriend started a catastrophic fire that killed her sister and three children has spoken out about her loss.
Sharaz Ali, 40, set fire to the home of his estranged ex’s sister, Bryonie Gawith, killing her and her children, Denisty, nine, Oscar, five, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle. Today, he was found guilty of their murders.
The blaze was a botched revenge attack on Bryonie’s sister, Antonia Gawith, who had been staying with the family in Bradford, West Yorkshire, after she ended her seven-year relationship with Ali, Doncaster Crown Court heard.
Ali and convicted arsonist Calum Sunderland, who sometimes sold drugs for the killer, were driven to the property on Westbury Road by Mohammed Shabir in the early hours of August 21 last year.
On their way, they stopped to fill a seven-litre canister with petrol as Ali sent Antonia a series of aggressive messages accusing her of being with someone else, jurors heard.
Meanwhile, chilling CCTV footage showed the moment the furious ex-boyfriend told his accomplice, who was holding a canister of petrol, to ‘kick in the door’ before sparking the fatal blaze.
Ali wanted to ‘inflict maximum pain’ with the horrifying fire and ‘did not care who was there’, the court was told. Meanwhile, the prosecution maintained he must have known the children were home at the time.
Pictured: Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her children, Denisty, nine, Oscar, five, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle
Ali, 40, (pictured) forced his way into Bryonie Gawith’s home and poured petrol around inside before starting the catastrophic blaze in the early hours of August 21 last year
The house on Westbury Road, Bradford, where the mother and her children were killed
Speaking of the loss of her ‘beautiful family’ outside court on Wednesday, Antonia said they would never get to ‘experience life in all the ways they deserve’ or ‘become who they were meant to be’.
While expressing the family’s ‘deepest thanks’ to the police, prosecution and barristers, she said even with justice, nothing will ever make this right.
‘Nothing will ever fill the silence where their laughter should be. Nothing will ever bring back our family.
‘We will forever carry this brokenness, and yet we will hold on to them tightly in only ways we can now, through our memories, our photos and our precious videos.’
‘Those are all we have left now,’ she said, while revealing the ‘long, agonising, and heart-shattering journey’ to justice drained the family in ‘ways words can only describe’.
Remembering her ‘beautiful’ sister Bryonie as the ‘glue that held’ the family together, she said: ‘She was the one everyone turned to, the one who made every room brighter just by walking into it.
‘She was the best daughter, sister, auntie, and most of all, the most devoted mother to her three children. ‘They were her world, and she lived every day to love and protect them.
‘Our sweet Chuch [Denisty] was blossoming into such a confident, creative soul, a little artist with a growing spark.
Bryonie’s sister Antonia Gawith, who survived the fire, pictured speaking to media outside Doncaster Crown Court today
Bryonie and her young children
Doorbell footage captured Sharaz Ali telling Calum Sunderland, who was carrying the petrol and a lighter, to ‘kick the door in’, which he did before running back to the car
‘She loved taekwondo with her cousins and best friend, and she adored her younger brother and sister.
‘She was always by her mum’s side, helping, caring, loving with maturity far beyond her years.
‘Our brave little soldier, Oggy [Oscar], who came into this world fighting, survived open heart surgery at just five days old.
‘He was strong, cheeky and full of life that was only just beginning. He had so much ahead of him, so many firsts he never got a chance to reach.’
Antonia described the youngest child, Aubree, also known in the family as Strawberry, as having hugs that could ‘melt sadness in an instant’.
‘Our precious Strawberry (Aubree), so tiny, so joyful, so pure of innocence. She made us smile without even trying. These are only a handful of memories we hold close.
‘We could speak of them for hours, for days, and still never capture all the love they brought into our lives. Their futures were stolen.
‘The children will never grow up, never experience life in all the ways they deserve, and our B will never grow old with us – never watch her babies become who they were meant to be.
‘We will love them for the rest of our lives. We will miss them in every breath,’ she added. ‘Our heart will never be whole again.’
Sunderland was found guilty of manslaughter but was cleared of murder
In the early hours of August 21, 2024, Sunderland kicked down the front door while Ali doused the house in fuel and set it alight, leaving Bryonie and her three children trapped inside.
Upon their arrival, Sunderland put on a glove, removed the blue petrol canister from the car and approached the house with a lighter.
He pulled up his hood to conceal before kicking the front door open and running off. Meanwhile, Ali entered the home, emptied the petrol canister and set it alight.
When the men arrived, Antonia, who had finished her shift at Tesco at 12.30am, was with Bryonie in the main bedroom upstairs.
Antonia said she went downstairs after hearing a noise and saw an ‘angry’ Ali run into the house and begin pouring petrol on her while shouting.
She described trying to wrestle the canister and lighter from him, before running outside in an attempt to lure him out of the house.
As she realised he had not followed her, Antonia went back towards the house and saw Bryonie, who had woken up, kick Ali down the stairs.
Antonia said Ali then hit the lighter, igniting the petrol and setting himself and the house on fire.
In a video interview played to jurors, Antonia sobbed as she told police how she ‘couldn’t save’ her sister, nieces and nephew.
She described trying frantically to get in through the back door, which was jammed shut, while screaming for help.
Antonia said Bryonie, who had rung 999 while coming down the stairs, threw her phone out of the window.
She told officers she picked it up and started ‘shouting down the phone telling them to send everybody – the police, ambulance, fire brigade’.
‘I was just screaming, trying to get back in the house and I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t save them,’ she said tearfully.
The court heard the first police officers on the scene managed to break the door down and pull Ali from the blaze, but when firefighters arrived it was too late to save Bryonie, who was found on the floor next to her bed, and the three children, who were all found in their beds.
Footage released by West Yorkshire Police shows the arrest of Calum Sunderland
Prosecutor David Brooke KC said one of them may have been woken up by the noise and ‘frightened by the sound of the explosion’.
The court heard Ali refused treatment from paramedics at the scene and was put into an induced coma for months before his recovery began.
Jurors were told that after the incident, two fingers on each of his hands had been amputated, that he still uses oxygen and still has difficulty speaking.
He told the trial he wanted to kill himself in front of Antonia, and only intended to set himself alight.
Sunderland said Ali had recruited him to torch a car, and that he did not know there was anyone in the house.
Sunderland was found guilty of the manslaughter but cleared of murdering Bryonie and her three children.
Meanwhile, Shabir who drove the duo to the property in Bradford, was due to stand trial but died of a heart attack while on remand.
In a statement issued after Bryonie’s death, her family said the loss of ‘our B’ and the children, referred to as ‘Chuch, Oggy and Strawberry’, had brought ‘unimaginable sadness and grief’.
The tribute read: ‘Our B was the life and soul of the party, music was a big part of her life, she loved music, singing and dancing, she would always be singing and dancing with Chuch (Denisty), Oggy (Oscar) and Strawberry (Aubree).
‘B was always a really happy, joyful, bubbly beautiful woman, who cared for everyone and was loved by everyone, her kids were everything to her, her whole life.
‘Oggy had the cheekiest smile, he was cheeky but he was a shy boy, Strawbs was shy and bashful with big blue eyes and blonde hair and Chuch was a beautiful, confident, outgoing and creative young girl.’
After they returned their verdicts, Mr Justice Hilliard thanked jurors and said the case had been ‘distressing beyond measure – three children and their mother murdered’.
He said: ‘I don’t think anyone who heard Antonia’s desperate cries for help will ever forget them.’
He added: ‘These are truly dreadful crimes.’
But, he said, there was also the ‘extraordinary bravery’ shown by people who tried to save the children trapped in the house, including their mother Antonia.
He praised Pc Miles Milner, who pulled Ali out of the fire, along with a colleague.
The judge asked: ‘Did you ever hear a braver thing?’
Mr Justice Hilliard said jurors were excused jury service in the future.