KWAKYE:35 YEARS FOR THUG WHO MURDERED BABY IN HORROR ARSON ATTACK

A heartless thug who murdered a baby girl and maimed her mother and grandmother in a horrific arson attack was jailed for at least 35 years today (Thurs).

Nineteen month-old Siariah Letang died after Richard Kwakye, 28, poured petrol through the letterbox of her family home in Camberwell, south London, and set it alight.

Neighbours were woken by the screams as her grandmother Brenda Ricketts, 45, desperately tried to open a first floor window.

Although firefighters managed to drag them from the blaze, Siariah died in hospital an hour later.

The baby’s mother Ellisha Letang, 23, and grandmother Brenda Ricketts, 45, both had to have reconstructive surgery after suffering severe burns. Two other children were also hurt.

Kwakye, who has previous convictions for robbery and drug dealing, wanted revenge on Miss Letang for reporting his partner to social services.

As a result Sacha Williamson, 29, was banned from making unsupervised visits to her own seven year-old daughter.

Kwakye first researched using sulphuric acid on the internet before recruiting his 19 year-old half-brother Dimitri John-Lewis, a promising footballer, to buy the petrol used to start the blaze.

Their mother Josephine Nicholas, 47, then lied to police to protect her sons during the police investigation.

Kwakye was jailed for life with a minimum of 35 years for the murder of Siariah Letang and life with a minimum of 20 years for the attempted murder of her mother Ellisha.

John-Lewis – who had been offered a professional contract by Swindon FC before the fire – was jailed for a total of 12 years, including ten years for the manslaughter of the baby girl and two years consecutive for perverting the course of justice.

Nicholas was jailed for four years for perverting the course of justice.

Passing sentence at the Old Bailey, Judge Giles Forrester told Kwakye that his offences were ‘despicable, horrific and evil.’

He added: ‘You did this at half-past four in the morning at a time when the occupants were likely to be most vulnerable, asleep in their beds and utterly defenceless.

‘The scars which the family bear are both physical and mental. It is because of the courage and perseverance of the firefighters and the skills of the medical people that those four survived their injuries.

‘This was a planned act of revenge. You knew that the daughter of your girlfriend would not be with Ellisha that night.

‘Your conduct was calculated and planned. The facts of this case are truly horrific.’

The judge told John-Lewis: ‘You knew that Richard Kwakye would use this petrol to set fire deliberately and unlawfully to occupied residential premises. You knew he intended to use that petrol as an act of revenge.’

He told Nicholas: ‘There was a persistence in your lies in connection with two suspects in a murder investigation, thus it was you who misled the police in a difficult and serious investigation.

‘You wasted their time and undermined the due administration of justice. These are heinous offences.

‘I must not only punish you for the offences you committed, I must send out a clear message that prison will follow in a case such as yours in order to deter those who attempt to protect the guilty.

‘The time has now come when the price for your dishonesty must be paid.’

During the trial jurors heard how Miss Letang, who was looking after Williamson’s seven year-old daughter, had reported Williamson for making unsupervised visits.

Two weeks before the arson attack Kwakye made a threatening visit to Ellisha Letang’s home in Thornton Heath, south London, in the middle of the night.

Then on the night of September 17 he was seen in the same area after Miss Letang noticed someone had tampered with her front door.

A police officer was called and she decided to take her baby daughter with her to stay with her mother at 13 Arnold Avenue in Camberwell, southeast London, at around 3am.

At 4.30am petrol was poured through the letterbox at the maisonette and set alight.

‘It led to a severe fire in the hallway immediately behind the front door,’ said prosecutor Jonathan Rees.

‘The flames and the hot gases quickly spread. It prevented escape of those people upstairs.

‘Neighbours in Arnold Avenue were woken up by terrifying screams of those inside and the noise of the fire as it took hold.

‘They could see smoke billowing from the window and went out to do what they could.’

Brenda Ricketts screamed that her family was going to die and tried to open the window but was overcome by smoke before she could undo the catch.

Ellisha Letang later told how she was woken by black smoke and an ‘explosion’ of fire and fell unconscious after using the duvet to cover herself and her baby.

Firefighters rescued all five people from the maisonette but Siariah Letang died of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation at hospital an hour later.

Her mother Ellisha suffered 32 per cent burns over her face and chest and had to have extensive reconstructive surgery.

Mrs Ricketts also needed surgery for 17 per cent burns, an 11 year-old girl suffered five per cent burns to her face and hands and a four year-old boy was treated for smoke inhalation. Neither of the younger children can be named because of their age.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC had told jurors: ‘This is a truly dreadful case.

‘There were five people asleep at the time, two adults and three children representing three generations of the same family.’

He added: ‘This was a revenge attack in response to the wrong Richard Kwakye believed had been done to him and his partner Sacha Williamson by Ellisha Letang.’

CCTV footage showed John-Lewis fetching a petrol can and filling it up with two litres of petrol at a Shell garage three hours before the attack.

Both he and his mother Josephine Nicholas, 47, later lied to police.

Kwakye told police he had been at home with his partner that night but during the trial Kwakye claimed he was out that night buying cannabis.

Scientific analysis found a link between the Shell petrol found at the scene and residue on a pair of black training shoes at Kwakye’s home.

The Ford Escort allegedly used by the killers was found 800m from Kwakye’s address. In it was a label from a petrol can and a drinks bottle on which was found DNA from John-Lewis.

Kwakye, of Andover Road, Twickenham, west London, was convicted of murder and attempted murder.

John-Lewis, of Wilcote House, Woodchester Square, Paddington, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.

John-Lewis and Nicholas, of Woodchester Square, Paddington, were convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Williamson, of Andover Road, Twickenham, was cleared of perverting the course of justice by lying to police about her partner’s movements.

The court heard Kwakye has a long history of offending dating back to when he was 14, for offences including dishonesty, assault and dealing cannabis and heroin.

In 2001 he was jailed for 30 months for robbery and in 2005 he received a six-year sentence for three robberies and dangerous driving.

Miss Letang said in a victim impact statement that her daughter Siariah was her ‘beautiful little angel’ and could ‘make you smile with her cheeky ways and sharp smile’.

‘That a person could pour petrol through someone’s letterbox while they slept, knowing people were inside including young children and deliberately set it alight is something I know I will spend the rest of my life trying to understand,’ she said.

She woke from a coma five weeks after the fire, on her birthday, and was told the news that her daughter was dead.

She said: ‘My life as I knew it effectively stopped at that time. My heart was broken. I just wanted to die and for it all to be over.

‘My scars are relatively minor compared to the hole in my heart I have been left with from the loss of Siariah.’

Her mother Mrs Ricketts said in her statement: ‘Although I survived I feel like a part of me died that night.’

She said the fire had ‘wiped out three generations of my family’.

ENDS