Sam Corbishley
Published December 4, 2025 9:19am
Updated December 4, 2025 9:19am
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Sharaz Ali is alleged to have deliberately set fire to the house, killing Bryonie Gawith (pictured) and her children Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five, and Aubree Birtle, 22 months (Picture: SWNS)
A man accused of killing a mum and her three young children in a house fire stormed out of the witness box and demanded to be taken back to prison, saying ‘I’m not a murderer’.
Calum Sunderland, 26, is said to have been recruited by Sharaz Ali, 40, to help carry out a ‘revenge’ arson attack on Ali’s former partner Antonia Gawith in Bradford last August.
Jurors at Doncaster Crown Court heard Ms Gawith was staying at the home of her sister, Bryonie Gawith after she ended their ‘abusive’ seven-year relationship earlier that month.
Ali is alleged to have deliberately set fire to the house, killing Bryonie and her children Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five, and Aubree Birtle, 22 months.
Convicted arsonist Sunderland is said to have been captured on Ring doorbell footage walking up to the house holding a petrol canister, kicking the door down when instructed by Ali and then running off.
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The trial was briefly halted on Tuesday when he refused to answer any more questions from prosecutor David Brooke KC, before he resumed cross-examination yesterday.
But he stopped answering questions again on Wednesday, twice leaving the witness box and telling the court: ‘I’m not a murderer, I know I’m not a murderer.’
Bryonie Gawith, 29, died at the scene, while her two daughters, nine-year-old Denisty and 22-month-old Aubree, and her son Oscar Birtle, five, later died in hospital
Floral tributes outside the house on Westbury Road, Bradford (Picture: Lee McLean/SWNS)
At one point in Mr Brooke’s questioning, Sunderland said: ‘He’s implied throughout the week that I killed people for crack. I’d rather go rob a bank.
‘I don’t get involved in people’s domestics, it’s nowt to do with me.’
Sunderland answered ‘yes’ when asked by judge Mr Justice Hilliard if he knew the jury could draw a negative inference if he refused to answer questions, and that the trial could continue without him.
He told the prosecutor: ‘You’re drilling me more than you drilled him (Ali). At the end of the day I didn’t set no fire, I didn’t pour no petrol, it makes no sense.’
On Monday Sunderland said he had been recruited by Ali to ‘burn a car’ and would never have gone if he had known there were people in the house.
He told the court he was addicted to crack cocaine, used to break car windows for money, and was once paid £150 by a friend of Ali’s to torch a car – an incident which resulted in him being convicted of arson.
Court artist drawing of Mohammed Shabir (second left) and Calum Sunderland (right) appearing at Bradford Magistrates’ Court (Picture: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire)
CCTV footage of Calum Sunderland filling a petrol canister (Picture: CPS)
On Monday Sunderland said he and Ali were ‘part of the drug world’ and that he had bought drugs from Ali, and sold drugs for him.
Asked about the fact that he had called Ali a ‘bully’ in one of his police interviews, Sunderland said he did not know if his co-defendant was dangerous, and could not remember seeing him bully anyone.
He told the court: ‘I knew he sold and I knew he drank, that’s all I knew. I didn’t know his personal life.’
Asked by Mr Brooke if he ‘didn’t really care as long as he got paid’, Sunderland said: ‘If that was the case why didn’t I just go and rob my mum’s house. There’s quicker ways to make money.’
He said he could not remember Ali being on the phone to Antonia Gawith as they were driving to the house on Westbury Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, in the early hours of August 21 last year.
Doncaster Crown Court has heard that after Ali went into the house and started pouring petrol around inside, as well as on himself and Antonia, she ran outside in an attempt to lure him out.
Police body worn still image of Callum Sunderland’s arrest (Picture: West Yorkshire Police)
Ali stayed in the house and used a lighter to start a ‘catastrophic’ blaze which killed Bryonie Gawith and her three children, who were all upstairs.
He told the trial that he wanted to kill himself in front of Antonia, and only intended to set himself alight.
The court previously heard that Ali was rescued from the fire by police who had arrived at the scene first.
Ali, of no fixed address, and Sunderland, of Keighley, West Yorkshire, are charged with murdering Bryonie and the three children, and attempting to murder Antonia.
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Mohammed Shabir, 45, who drove Ali and Sunderland to the house and had been due to go on trial with them, died of a heart attack while on remand.
The court previously heard that Ali was rescued from the fire by police officers who had arrived at the scene first, that he was arrested at the scene and refused treatment from paramedics.
Jurors were told that after the incident two fingers on each of Ali’s hands had been amputated, that he still uses oxygen and still has difficulty speaking.
Ali and Sunderland deny the charges and the trial continues.
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