Boy detained for killing brother

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/6929892.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A 15-year-old boy who murdered his brother when he deliberately set fire to their family home was today detained for 10 years.

Matthew Stringer set fire to the house in Barnsley, South Yorkshire after a "cocktail of grievances" towards his family, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Earlier this week he was convicted of murdering his brother Adam, 15, whose body was found upstairs after the fire.

After the sentencing the boys' family said: "We feel justice has been done".

Stringer was also found guilty of arson with intent to endanger life.

The court heard he was angry after being grounded for stealing £4,500 from his elder brother Craig's bank account.

'Horrifying'

Stringer, who was 14 at the time of the fire, was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years' detention.

The judge, Mrs Justice Cox said: "Whether you intended to kill or cause really serious injury seems to be immaterial but using an accelerant to deliberately set light to someone's home is peculiarly horrifying."

She described how the teenager's behaviour had deteriorated in the months after his parents split in August 2005 and he had previously lit fires in a skip, a field and a garden shed.

He had also used a cigarette lighter to cause burns to his hands.

The rest of the family escaped by jumping from upstairs windows

The court heard Stringer poured white spirit in the hall and stairway of the home in Kitchin Road on 3 November last year while six people, including his mother, were asleep upstairs.

He lit the fire with a match, left the house and then watched "impassively" as his mum, 13-year-old sister, two elder brothers and one of their girlfriends, who was pregnant, jumped from upstairs windows.

One brother broke both ankles - injuries which still cause him difficulties - and Stringer's mother was badly burned and spent several months in hospital.

In the panic, no-one noticed initially that Adam had not escaped from the house and firefighters later found the boy dead in his bed, still wearing headphones.

Stringer denied starting the fire, telling police he was delivering newspapers when the fire was started and returned home to find people jumping from windows.

After the sentencing, Det Ch Insp Mick Whitehouse, from South Yorkshire Police, read a statement from the family.

They said: "Since the tragic events of the house fire on 3 November last year in which we lost our loving son, Adam, we have put our trust in the justice system.

"We, the family, accept this verdict and feel justice has been done."