Man jailed for killing family in Lennon flat

A “CONTROLLING” husband who murdered his wife and two children in the former home of John Lennon has been jailed for a minimum of 31 years.

Sami Salem, 30, had claimed diminished responsibility for the killings, but was found guilty of murdering Arena Saeed, his wife, 30, Shadia, his seven-yearold daughter, and Rami, his son, four, after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

The court heard he suffocated his wife and drowned his two children in the bath at their flat on Falkner Street in Liverpool – which is a regular stop for Beatles fans on sightseeing tours of the city.

Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia, lived at the property in the Sixties, shortly after they married.

Residents had to evacuate their homes on May 30 last year after engineers were called following reports of the smell of petrol and gas.

When relatives gained access to the family’s home, they found the three victims lying on the bed, with Salem almost unconscious at the foot of the bed.

At his sentencing hearing yesterday, the court heard Salem, who was surrounded in the dock by four workers from Ashworth high-security psychiatric hospital, was a paranoid schizophrenic.

Mr Justice Holgate said there was evidence he was controlling and possessive towards his wife, whom he married in Yemen in 2009. Mrs Saeed was said to have asked for a divorce earlier in May last year.

The judge said: “He sought to control her movements outside the flat and whom she met. He controlled her access to the internet and use of a mobile phone. This affected her ability to communicate with her family in Yemen.

“She spoke little or no English, the family were not part of the Yemeni community in Liverpool and she must have felt isolated.”

The court heard the family of Mrs Saeed said she was “known for her kindness”.