Dean Pike's killers jailed for life

Dean Pike's badly burned body was found by firefighters on the upstairs landing of his home - which no longer had stairs due to the 1000 degree (centigrade) heat.

The football-loving 11-year-old's heavily pregnant mother Janine Dodd, 30, had already been blown from an upstairs window but survived her ordeal and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Arsonists Terry Majinusz and Neil English were jailed for life for Dean's murder.

At Newcastle Crown Court Judge John Milford told them: "Both armed with lighter fuel, you found and set fire to the wrong address and a child was killed and his mother was very seriously injured.

"The fire developed rapidly and was so intense it reached the point of flashover, the fire officer described it as one of the most serious house fires he'd seen in 21 years of service.

"The occupants never had a chance. The only sentences I can pass on you is life imprisonment."

For murder and GBH with intent, Judge Milford imposed on English two life sentences.

He will not be considered for parole for 24 years and 70 days.

Majinusz who the judge said had an IQ of just 81 was jailed for life for murder and for 8 years for GBH with intent to run concurrent.

He will not be considered for parole for 21 years and 78 days.

The judge said: "It will then be for the parole board to determine whether it is safe to release you back into the ordinary world.

"You will be on license for the rest of your lives.

"If you breach your license you will be liable to be recalled and may spend the rest of your natural lives in prison."

The court had heard how Dean's body had been partially cremated by the intensity of the blaze and he would have been alive during the progress of the fire.

The single-mum's two bedroom terraced house in Mordey Close, Deerness Park, Hendon, Sunderland, was set alight by Neil English, 43, and Terry Majinusz, 40, who used lighter fluid to start the blaze.

The house was mistakenly targeted by the pair who were looking for relatives of Majinusz's 18-year-old girlfriend.

He was angry because some of her family disapproved of their relationship due to the 22 year age gap, the court heard.

Majinusz and English, both of Chester Road Sunderland, denied murder throughout the two-week trial but were found guilty by a jury.

They were found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Janine but cleared of attempted murder.

Trevor Gordon, 22, of Redmond Road, Sunderland, was also accused of the murder and attempted murder of Dean and Janine but was cleared of all charges.

English already has a previous conviction for arson after he torched an ex-girlfriends home.

Speaking after the verdicts Dean's mum Janine said: "I think you could sum up Dean by saying he was always busy.

"He never went out without a football in his hand and he had about four different Sunderland shirts which were all he liked to wear.

"He'd always wanted a brother or sister so he was really excited when he found out he was going to have one. He was even picking out clothes for the baby."

Janine can remember virtually nothing about the night of the fire, she remembers going to bed and waking up in hospital about a week later to be told that Dean had died.

She knows that neighbours came to her aid as she lay on the ground after being thrown from the house and understands their distress at not being able to get inside to help Dean.

"I want to thank everyone involved, my neighbours as well as the emergency services, " she said.

Janine is still struggling to come to terms with her loss.

She said: "Because I can't remember anything about what happened I'm still finding it difficult to believe Dean's gone.

"It just doesn't seem real, but being in court every day for the trial has given me some answers.

"I can't put into words what I feel about the people who did this, except to say that if it were possible I would want someone to do to them what they did to Dean.

"He never had the chance to grow up, to develop into the man he was going to be.

"He's missed out on all the firsts - his first girlfriend, his first pint in a pub with his grandfather - he was just a child.

"Not a day goes by when I don't think about him or how he died."

The court had heard how Janine and Dean were the tragic victims of a mistaken identity.

Prosecutor Brian Forster QC told the court: "Miss Dodd did not know the defendants and they did not know her. There had been no trouble between them whatsoever.

"The defendants had gone to the wrong house, they had intended to go for someone else's home but they ended up at the wrong street.

"Miss Dodd and her son were innocent victims sleeping in their own beds in their own home."

Mr Forster told the court how emergency services were alerted to the blaze by Miss Dodd herself at ten minutes to one in the morning on June 24 last year.

But the call ended abruptly before she could give the operator her address, probably due to an explosion.

Shocked neighbours were quickly on hand to help but the court heard how by the time a leading fire fighter was able to enter the house, Dean had died.

Mr Forster told the court: "A leading fire fighter climbed a ladder to gain access to the first floor of the house.

"On the upstairs landing he found the body of Dean Pike.

"The body had been seriously burned. No features on the body were disinguishable.

"The boy of course was dead."

The court heard how neighbours trying to help at the scene had described flames "leaping out of all the windows" at the height of the blaze.

One who lived across the road said: "The flames seemed to be so intense they appeared to reach across the street and almost made contact with the sheds at the bottom of our garden."

Another neighbour described the noise from the scene as "a bonfire alight at its highest blaze."

One of the first witnesses on the scene described noises coming from inside the house as the flames lashed out, completely melting the front door.

He said; It sounded like a cat in pain. The noise consisted of two consecutive one second wails and then there was silence."

He then heard the sound of someone having difficulty breathing coming from the rear of the property and found Miss Dodd lying on the ground in the back garden.

Mr Forster said: "She was in distress.

"Burning debris was falling upon her and she was pulled away to safety."

Miss Dodd was taken to Sunderland Royal Hospital before being transferred to the neurosurgical unit at Newcastle General.

As well as the effects of smoke inhalation she had a fractured skull, bleeding on her brain and a fracture of a vertebrae in her back.

She subsequently gave birth to a health child.

A post mortem revealed Dean had died from a combination of smoke inhilation and burns.

There was extensive charring on his body and heat fractures to his skull.