22/07/2014 BBC Oxford News

A mother of four has today been convicted

of helping to plot an arson attack in Oxford 17 years ago which led to

Fiaz Munshi was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

She's the final person involved in the fire who has now been brought

Peter Cooke looks back at what prompted this revenge attack

You have shown no emotional remorse for the death of these children.

She denied her involvement from the very start.

But has now been convicted of playing a central role

Fiaz Munshi's victims aged just 8 and 15.

This is where they and their futures died, Magdalen

Majid Khan was a talented cricketer, described as humble and funny.

His sister Anum, said to be gentle, polite, a girly girl.

Their older brother Amjad had been involved in

But his family disapproved, saying she was a bad influence,

and told her relatives about the relationship.

Scorned and outcast by her family she began a campaign

That dispute led to her and seven others travelling to Oxford

from Stevenage late one August evening ` with revenge in mind.

She was heard to say, "Burn the house down".

When the group arrived, two men from the group squirted petrol from

drink bottles ` like these ` through the letterbox and set it alight.

Seven people were in the house ` five had to jump

But Anum was trapped and died of smoke inhalation.

She was found lying in a ball under a window.

Majid suffered over 50% burns and died a few days later.

The murders shocked Oxford and hundreds turned out

In November 1998 five men were convicted of killing Anum and Majid.

A year later Fiaz's sister Riaz Munshi was convicted

But Thames Valley Police made a serious error in 2005 ` which meant

information about Fiaz being back in the UK was not processed properly.

That meant plans to arrest her were delayed by eight years.

As recently as last October Fiaz Munshi denied even being in Oxford

You are fully aware of the events of that night

and you set out intending to kill or cause previous harm to the people

Just one of many lies she told about that night,

lies not believed by the jury, lies which 17 years after these children

As we heard in Peter Cooke's report, a number of other family members

were in the house at the time of the fire, including Anum

Then aged 21, she'd just returned home from university.

She gave us her own tragic account of what happened that night.

I remember looking out the window and I could see my mum running up

There was fire at the front of the house and that is when I

I was going back to the hallway to go to the back room

where my younger sister was sleeping with me that night.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get to her.

I was looking at the window asking them to jump.

She couldn't get back into the door because the fire had

We won't accept it because they were so beautiful

innocent children that have been taken away from us in a coward way.

Police say it was their mistake which led to the long delay in Fiaz

The Senior Investigating Officer from Thames Valley Police spoke to

I apologise personally to the family that a mistake made

in 2005 meant we couldn't bring this to justice that much earlier.

We weren't responsible for the first issue.

I know the investigation team did all they could to bring

Well, Fiaz Munshi will return to Oxford Crown Court on Thursday

For more on this story there's more on the BBC Oxford website.

In the last hour, police have said they've found the body of

It comes after a person was reported to have got into difficulty

in the water near Gossmore Lane in Marlow this afternoon.

Specialist Search and Rescue Teams discovered the boy, who they believe

The death is not believed to be suspicious.

A former Oxford student, now living in Gaza, is fighting for his life,

after his house was destroyed in a bomb attack which killed his

Hassan Hallaq lived with his family in the city while he studied for a

When someone dies their possessions can become more precious.

Last year Samar Hallaq helped to make this tapestry of Palestinian

history, but she will never see it finished.

On Sunday bombs fell in Gaza destroying Samar home.

She, along with her two children and six other relatives were killed.

Now her husband Hassan is fighting for his life in hospital.

When you know a family well and they are destroyed, it hits home for more

directly than reading about the numbers of people killed and

injured. It changes things. Israel claims the bombing is

against militants. Tonight in Oxford a vigil's been

held for members of the Hallaq family, for many, their deaths have

brought the conflict in the Fire crews are still tackling

a huge fire at a waste plant People living near to

Averies Recycling in Marshgate have been told to keep their windows

closed because of the smoke. Public Health experts say air

quality tests have shown that it We have reached a high of 27 Celsius

at Brize Norton. We have some humid temperatures overnight with loads of

around 16 Celsius. The client `` the skies will not stay clear for most

of the night. We have a lot of cloud first thing but it will thin and

break during the day and it would be a day like today. A high tomorrow of

27, possibly 28 Celsius. It could be warmer than today. It is a dry day

and Thursday and Friday had the Good evening. I know some of us

could do with a drop of rain for the gardens, and the hot weather doesn't

suit us all, but it's within a warm one today. 20 degrees in many parts

of Scotland and Northern Ireland, the warmest day of the year so far.

It's been a hot one further south too. 30 degrees along the south

coast of England. There's plenty more warmth to come through the rest

of this week. A balmy night. Most of us dry. Low cloud and mist off the

North Sea into central and eastern parts of the