Husband's life sentence for murder

A 42-year-old man from the Shropshire border was today behind bars beginning a life sentence for murdering the mother of his four children in a house fire.

Alan George Stead, was jailed at Stafford Crown Court yesterday at the end of a four-week trial. He was convicted of murdering his wife, Anita Stead, 39, by trapping her in a room at their home on May 27, 2002.

The jury of eight women and four men returned a verdict after deliberating for about five hours.

Stead, of Meynellfield, Loggerheads, near Market Drayton, was sentenced to life imprisonment and told he would have to serve at least 25 years behind bars.

He had started the fire at the couple's home in Waterhayes, Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Bertram Whitehead, 82, Mrs Stead's father, welcomed the sentence but said Stead's actions had left his four grandchildren "scarred for life" and with nowhere to turn.

He also spoke out about his tireless six year "quest for truth and justice".

"I have done everything I can to seek truth and justice against the cruelty of the horror my daughter must have experienced behind a locked door, in a blacked out small room with a raging fire on the other side and no way out," he said.

"Seeking the truth really is stranger than fiction and I have written volumes of it at great cost emotionally, health-wise and financially, and it seems greater expense ahead with the devastating trail it leaves behind."

Mr Whitehead said his grandchildren had not even recognised him in court after years of being "alienated" by Stead's family.

"The children are scarred for life now, that's the problem. There's no satisfaction for me in him having the sentence, where do the children turn now? They've been alienated by his family.

"She had so much to give to the children and then she was cut off at the age of 39. She's gone and all I've got left is her ashes. My family has lost forever a beautiful daughter."

Stephen Linehan QC, prosecuting, told the court: "There was mental suffering inflicted on the deceased before her death. She must have realised she was doomed in the short period before she would have been overcome by poisonous fumes.

"The consequences of the defendant's act have destroyed or damages almost to destruction the lives of many people."

By Abigail Bates