A VERDICT of unlawful killing has been returned on two children found dead in a burning car with their mother.

The bodies of Nabeala Hussain, 23, and her children - three-year-old Danial Parvez and 22-month-old daughter Salia - were found in the family car between Walpole Street and Warren Street, not far from their Middlesbrough home last year.

Yesterday, an inquest in Middlesbrough heard how Mrs Hussain bought paint stripper, turpentine and a box of matches before starting the fire.

Fire investigators told the inquest that she splashed paint stripper over the front seats and passenger footwell, and tried to drop a burning match on turpentine-soaked towels in the boot, where there was also a bin liner stuffed with more than £15,000 in notes.

Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield ruled that Mrs Hussain killed herself, but he recorded verdicts of unlawful killing on her children after hearing evidence they had all died from smoke inhalation.

He heard police evidence that marks found on Danial's face could have been the result of him being restrained.

The inquest heard that Mrs Hussain married factory worker Parvez Akhtar in 1999, and she was pregnant six months later.

Mr Parvez said through an interpreter that his wife was a staunch Muslim who observed fasts and read the Koran.

Detectives investigating the deaths discovered she had considered abortion both times she found herself pregnant, and she had told her husband she was reluctant about having any more children.

Her friend, Sabrina Din, said in a written statement that suicide may have been Mrs Hussain's escape from a humdrum life.

She said: "I had a more westernised lifestyle and Nabeala didn't. I could go out socialising, but Nabeala never did.

"Whenever I spoke to Nabeala, she was always interested in what I did and in my life, but spoke very little about hers. I got the impression she had a boring life."

The inquest heard the family lived at her mother's house in Gresham Road, Middlesbrough, but when it became crowded with other relatives moving in, Mrs Hussain started looking at other houses.

The inquest heard that following the fire, on January 9, police were met with a wall of silence from the community and Mrs Hussain's family.