Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Landlord jailed as boys die in house with no smoke alarms
A LANDLORD has been jailed over the deaths of two young boys in a fire, after he failed to fit smoke alarms in their home. Kamal Bains’s failure to install the safety devices was a “significant cause” in the deaths Logan Taylor, three, and his brother Jake Casey, two, the court heard.
Bains, 51, was accused of repeat- edly ignoring the family’s requests to install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors at the rented home his firm maintained.
Logan and Jake had “no chance” of surviving the blaze in their home in Huddersfield, West Yorks, on February 20, 2016, the court heard. The fire is thought to have been started by an electrical fault in the TV in the boys’ bedroom.
They are survived by parents Emma Taylor and Jamie Casey, and brother Finley, eight. In a victim impact statement, Ms Taylor said: “I have been left heartbroken. I relive the moment I could not get to them. I don’t think I will ever recover.
“I have nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night to my boys crying, but they are not there.
“My son Finley is not the same – he is angry and blames himself.”
Prosecutor Allan Compton said Bains “sealed the fate of those children”. He added: “He allowed them to live in a premises conscious that there was a risk of death. They had no chance, whereas if those alarms were present they would have had at least a chance.”
Defending, Mr Tyrone Smith QC said the situation was not “endemic” in his client’s properties and he was not “greedy or nasty”.
Bains, of Huddersfield, was facing two manslaughter charges, but mid-trial he admitted health and safety violations. Leeds crown court gave him 12 months in jail.