A 19-month-old girl was killed in a horrific revenge arson attack which targeted her family as they slept, the Old Bailey heard this morning.

Toddler Siariah Letang from Thornton Heath died of smoke inhalation after petrol was poured through the letterbox of her grandmother’s home in Camberwell last September.

Her mother Ellisha Letang, 23, grandmother Brenda Ricketts, 46, and two other children suffered severe burns after becoming trapped in the inferno once the fuel was set alight.

The court heard Richard Curtis Kwakye, 28, from Twickenham, started the fire in revenge for a previous firearms incident and custody dispute.

He and his brother Dmitri John-Lewis, 19, deny murdering the toddler, attempting to murder the other family members and committing arson.

Their mother Josephine Nicholas, from Paddington, and Mr Kwake’s partner Sacha Williamson deny perverting the course of justice by providing false information to police.

Mr John-Lewis, from Paddington, denies a similar charge.

The jury heard Mrs Letang tried to throw the children out of a window when the blaze started, but was in too much of a panic to get it open.

The trial continues.