IN a heartbreaking letter written days before his murder, schoolboy Dean Pike told God: "I am very happy with all the people in the world that don't go around killing other people for no reason."

The letter, released by Dean's mother on the day his killers were convicted of murder, appealed to God: "Please change the awful things in life and keep the good stuff running."

Days later, the 11-year-old died in an arson attack on his home in Mordey Close, Hendon, Sunderland, which left his pregnant mother, Janine Dodd, seriously injured.

Police said Dean stood no chance of escaping the fire, which reached temperatures of 1,000C.

Firefighters found his body on an upstairs landing above a burnt-out staircase, leaving him no way out of the inferno.

In a sickening twist, Newcastle Crown Court heard that Dean's killers had intended to target another family, but had started the fire at the wrong house.

Yesterday, 43-year-old Neil English and 40-year-old Terry Majinusz, both of Chester Road, Sunderland, were convicted of murder, at the end of a two-week trial.

They were cleared of the attempted murder of Dean's 30-year-old mother, but convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent.

A third man, 22-year-old Trevor Gordon, of Redmond Road, Sunderland, was acquitted of murder and attempted murder.

Speaking after the convictions, Miss Dodd said: "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."

The court heard how, last June, English and Majinusz had used lighter fluid to start the fire at the terraced house while Dean and his mother slept upstairs.

The pair were looking for relatives of Majinusz's 18-year-old girlfriend, who disapproved of the pair's relationship because of the age gap.

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

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

Judge John Milford will sentence Majinusz and English today, but warned the pair that they are facing life behind bars.

He said: "You have both been convicted of murder and the only sentence I can pass upon you, and I will pass tomorrow, is a sentence of life imprisonment."

Mr Forster told the court how emergency services were alerted to the blaze by Miss Dodd, just before 1am on June 24 last year. But the call ended before she could give the operator her address.

An explosion caused by the fire blew her from an upstairs window into the garden.

She suffered a fractured skull, fractured vertebrae and bleeding on her brain in the fall.

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

A week later, the news of Dean's death was broken to her.

She has since given birth to a son, now aged eight months.