Murder life sentences after pair caught on CCTV setting fire to 'wrong' Wolverhampton house
Two men who launched a "horrific" arson attack on a family home in Wolverhampton, killing a 26-year-old man and leaving his mother with life-changing injuries, have been jailed for life.
Daniel Tatters was caught on a security camera smashing and removing a bay window at the home of Akashdeep Singh, before using a flammable liquid to engulf the living room in flames.
Tatters was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 34 years.
Dale Francis, who acted as a driver and look-out at the scene, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 36 years.
Both men, who are from Stoke-on-Trent, were both unanimously convicted of murder, arson with intent to endanger life and attempted murder on Tuesday, after jurors deliberated for more than nine hours.
"You intended to kill"
The judge told them: 'The family are now all traumatised by the death of Akashdeep Singh.
'I am sure you intended to kill anyone who found themselves in the house at the time of the fire.'
In a victim impact statement read to the court before the sentence, Akashdeep's family said the fire at his home was an act of 'pure evil' meant for someone else, which had left a normal family suffering 'unimaginable' pain and suffering.
A three-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court was told that a security camera filmed Daniel Tatters as he smashed and removed a bay window at the home of Akashdeep Singh, before using a flammable liquid to engulf the living room in flames.
Mr Singh died in hospital hours later after being trapped upstairs by the blaze at his home in Plascom Road in East Park in Wolverhampton, which the court heard may have been targeted by mistake.
Prosecutors alleged that Tatters, 26, and 37-year-old Francis had started the fire at about 1am on June 25 last year 'as the outcome of a considered agreement' following several previous journeys to familiarise themselves with the area.
A lighter found by fire crews near the bay window was found to have Tatters's DNA on it, while phone records, an in-car tracking device and other CCTV footage linked Francis, of Clare Street, Basford, Stoke-on-Trent, to the attack.
Tatters told jurors he had never been to Wolverhampton and had cut his hand on a glass pane while falling over in his garden.
Francis, whose barrister described the consequences of the fire as tragic and horrific, declined to give evidence, claiming in a written statement he thought his accomplice only intended to 'torch' a car.
Prosecutor Mark Heywood KC opened the case at the start of the trial, saying the defendants had travelled around 40 miles from Stoke-on-Trent in Francis's Volkswagen Golf.
Tatters visited the Royal Stoke University Hospital around two-and-a-half hours after the fire for treatment for cuts to his fingers.
CCTV proved Tatters, who was staying at an address in Sneyd Green, Stoke-on-Trent, went on foot to Plascom Road after the Golf was parked in Sutherland Avenue, around a third of a mile away.
The footage also showed the driver's door of the Golf being opened minutes before two figures were seen entering East Park at a location said to be a six-minute walk to Plascom Road.
"Each of them shared the intention to murder all the occupants"
Mr Heywood told the court: 'Their actions make it clear that, whichever one of them actually started the fire, each of them shared the intention to murder all the occupants and each assisted and/or encouraged the other to carry that out as planned.
'As to why they went to that house on that night, and as to why they did what they did, these are not matters which the prosecution need to prove. It may never be possible to know why.
'Only the would-be killers or those involved in the enterprise may know that, and for obvious reasons, you may think, they would never reveal it.'
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