Article 1.
Father killed family for being too western
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 1:53AM GMT 22 Feb 2007
Previous1 of 2 ImagesNext Mohammed Riaz
Clockwise from top left: Caneze Riaz with daughters Sayrah, Alisha and Sophia
A father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest heard yesterday.
Mohammed Riaz, 49, found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages.
On Hallowe'en last year he sprayed petrol throughout their terraced home in Accrington, Lancs, and set it alight.
Caneze Riaz, 39, woke and tried to protect her three-year-old child, Hannah, who was sleeping with her, but was overcome by fumes. Her other daughters, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, and Alisha, 10, died elsewhere in the house.
Riaz, who had spent the evening drinking, set himself on fire and died two days later.
Relatives broke the news to the couple's son, Adam, 17, as he lay terminally ill with cancer at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. He died six weeks later.
Michael Singleton, the coroner, recorded verdicts that Riaz killed himself and that his victims were unlawfully killed.
Riaz, who had spent all but the last 17 years of his life in the North West Frontier region of Pakistan, met his Anglo-Pakistani wife when her father sent her to the sub-continent to find a husband.
After an arranged marriage, she developed a career as a community leader in Accrington while he, handicapped by a lack of English, took on a series of low-paid jobs.
After Mrs Riaz's father died she "suddenly felt less beholden to Mohammed", a friend said. "She started to develop her own circle of friends and allowed the girls to express themselves in a more western way."
She began to work with women who felt suppressed by Asian culture and many saw her as a role model for young Asian women.
Article 2.
Police wait to quiz father over deaths of wife and daughters in house fire
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 2:11AM GMT 02 Nov 2006
Killed in the blaze: Sayrah, Sophia and Alisha Riaz
Detectives were last night at a hospital bedside waiting to interview a man whose wife and four daughters were killed in an arson attack within hours of a Halloween party at their home.
Mohammed Riaz, 49, suffered serious burns when the blaze spread through his end-of-terrace house in Accrington, Lancs, at what one fireman described as a "terrifying" speed.
He was resuscitated by fire crews, who smashed through the locked front door, but the rest of his family perished. All were trapped in their bedrooms.
Neighbours in the mainly Muslim community looked on in horror as firemen brought out the bodies of Caneze Riaz, 39, who was a prominent Muslim community worker, and her daughters Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, Alisha, 10, and Hannah, three.
The couple's son, Adam, 17, was out of the house at the time of the attack because he was staying overnight at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, where he is being treated for terminal cancer.
His mother had taken him to Manchester and returned a few hours before the blaze. Earlier in the evening the girls had been holding an impromptu Halloween party with friends. Detectives are investigating reports that one later made a desperate last mobile phone call to a friend.
Lancashire police began a murder inquiry within hours of the blaze being extinguished. The force also moved quickly to allay local concerns that the attack may have been racially motivated.
Det Supt Mick Gradwell said: "Already it is clear that there were several seats of fire and accelerants had been used. The cause of the fire is deliberate. The house was secure and locked from the inside."
It was a "priority" of the investigation for his team to speak to the sole survivor, he said. Officers at Mr Riaz's bedside at Wythenshawe Hospital will remain there until he is well enough to be interviewed.
In particular, detectives are anxious to know why the taxi driver, who was resuscitated on the pavement by a fireman, was unable to lead the rest of his family to safety. The causes of death have yet to be confirmed. Although police believe the victims died as a result of the blaze, it remains a possibility that they were killed before it began.
Mrs Riaz, who was half-English, half-Pakistani, was a highly respected community worker in the town. Her job as a project co-ordinator with the Hyndburn Cultural Association involved helping young Muslims integrate with the wider population.
She had also worked as a teaching assistant at her children's primary school, which is only a few yards from the family's home.
The three eldest children had all passed through Hyndburn Park Primary, while Alisha was due to leave next July. Hannah would have started in the school's reception class in September.
Sayrah had ambitions to be a model, while Sophia was an enthusiastic member of a local girls' football team.
Zeenat Begum, 24, who worked with Mrs Riaz and regarded her as her best friend, saw firemen bringing out the victims' bodies shortly after 2am.
"They were brought out one by one," she said. "First they brought out Alisha, then Caneze. We don't know what happened. The neighbours told me they heard knocking from the house, but no one could break down the door.
"Caneze was like my left arm. I can't believe it is real. I spoke to her a matter of hours before the fire.
"I was going to bring some tea round for all the family, but she just said, 'It's okay, I'll just see you in the morning.'
"We were out on Monday to celebrate Eid. She looked stunning, dressed all in red. We had such a fantastic time. I can't get used to the fact that I arrived here in the early hours to see her body being brought out of the house. She is irreplaceable."
Another friend, Saeeda Farouq, said: "I spoke to her yesterday and the family were so happy. I can't bear to think of what happened to them.
"The girls were so pretty. They were like angels. Hannah was so beautiful, with curly hair. She was so happy before with her black and white dress. She had been taking pictures on my children's telephones, playing earlier that night."
Anayat Mohammed, from the Hyndburn Cultural Association, described Mrs Riaz as "a warm, kind and sincere person who was respected across all sections of our community".
He added: "At a time when communities have been polarised by actions taken outside our community, Caneze was a beacon for building good relations between people of different backgrounds."
Article 3.
Marriage fears of father in death blaze
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 2:44AM GMT 03 Nov 2006
The father of four girls found murdered in their blazing home was concerned about the state of his disintegrating marriage, it emerged yesterday.
Friends said Mohammed Riaz, 49, had begun to fear that his Anglo-Pakistani wife, Caneze, was having an affair.
They are thought to have argued hours before the blaze that destroyed their terrace home in Accrington, Lancs.
Mr Riaz, already with a reputation for being moody, apparently had spoken of feeling isolated from the rest of his family. While he held low-paid jobs and centred his life on the local mosque, Mrs Riaz, 39, a "bright and bubbly" woman, was embracing an ever more westernised way of life and encouraging their children to do the same.
His depression was compounded by the knowledge that his son, Adam, 17, was seriously ill in hospital with leukaemia.
Mr Riaz was resuscitated by a fireman after the Hallowe'en night blaze and is critically ill with 60 per cent burns. Detectives were last night by his bed hoping to interview him when he regains consciousness.
Article 4.
Arson man dies from burns
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 1:04AM GMT 04 Nov 2006
Five members of the Riaz family died in the blaze
Marriage fears of father in death blaze
A teenager who lost his mother and four sisters in a Hallowe’en night arson attack learned today that his father had also died as a result of the blaze.
Adam Riaz, 17, received the news as he lay seriously ill in a hospital bed with leukaemia.
Detectives then confirmed to him the fact that his father, Mohammed, 49, had been the sole suspect in their hunt for the arsonist.
Mr Riaz, a factory worker, died at 8.33am, having sustained 60 per cent burns in the blaze at the family’s end-of-terrace home in Accrington, Lancs.
He never regained consciousness. His death has been reported to the local coroner.
A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “We are not looking for anyone else in relation to the murders.”
Two days ago medical staff at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, switched off all the televisions and radios on Adam’s ward before relatives broke the news of the fatal blaze.
An uncle told him that his mother, Caneze, 39, a community worker, and sisters, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, Alisha, 10, and Hannah, three, had all perished in the fireball that engulfed their home.
The five were trapped in their bedrooms as the blaze, started in a number of locations, and accelerated by the spraying of petrol, spread rapidly through the building.
Mr Riaz was found in the bathroom by firemen who had to break down the locked front door.
It emerged yesterday that he had become depressed both by Adam’s illness and the gradual disintegration of his arranged marriage.
Having mastered only a little English since coming to Lancashire with his British-born wife in the late 1980s, he felt isolated as she and the children became increasingly westernised.
Article 5.
'Tormented' husband killed Riaz family
9:04am Wednesday 21st February 2007
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By Charlotte Bradshaw »
A HUSBAND killed his wife and four daughters by setting fire to their home before throwing himself into the flames, an inquest was told.
Caneze Riaz, who was a popular community worker, died along with her four daughters in the blaze at their home in Tremellen Street, Accrington, last November.
Her husband Mohammed, who worked at a plastics factory in Blackburn, was pulled alive from the house by firefighters but died later in hospital.
The inquest was told that Mohammed had poured a line of petrol all over the house. Three seats of fire were found upstairs at the top of the stairs outside Sayrah's bedroom and outside Caneze's room.
The fire was believed to have been started by a match upstairs.
Mohammed had also poured the highly flammable liquid over Caneze while she was sleeping in the master bedroom with little Hannah, the inquest was told.
Police chiefs said Mohammed waited downstairs as he was expecting the backblast from the fire to strike him.
However when the fire didn't spread to the ground floor of the house, Mohammed walked upstairs and then threw himself into the flames, the hearing was told.
Caneze's DNA was found on one of the petrol cans left in the room. The hearing heard that this indicated that Caneze had woken and tried to get to the door holding the can, before being overcome.
The hearing heard that the motives behind the killings may never be known.
However after the case police said that distance had grown between Mohammed and Caneze and that there were also financial difficulties. Coroner Michael Singleton said Caneze, 39, and daughters Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 12, Alicia, 10, and Hannah, three, died from inhalation of products of combustion.
The coroner recorded a verdict that Mohammed, who suffered 65 per cent burns to his body, killed himself and unlawfully killed his wife and four daughters.
Mr Singleton paid tribute to the fire service for their "heroism" and to police chiefs for their thorough investigation.
He said: "Never within my 13 years as coroner have I had to deal with so many connected deaths or circumstances where the wider community has been so deeply affected by the tragedy."
Mohammed, 49, died at Wythenshawe Hospital from burns and smoke inhalation.
He was identified by his cousin Mohammed Akram.
He was found unconscious in the bathroom In the rear bedroom next to the bathroom, Sayrah's body was found.
Alicia was found on the floor of the front bedroom and Sophia was in bed in the same room.
The couple's 17-year-old son Adam was not home as he was receiving treatment for a terminal illness at the time. He died a few weeks later.
Speaking after the inquest, Det Supt Mick Gradwell said: "We are never going to know exactly why he did it but there are a number of issues.
"Adam went into Christies Hospital that day.
"There were financial difficulties, which were not huge but there was quite a bit of debt.
"Caneze's brother Barry told us about a distancing of Mohammed and Caneze.
"They wanted different things.
"Caneze didn't want her daughters to have arranged marriages but exactly why he did this, we can't give a reason.
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