According to the newspaper The Independent, the two men appeared in court on Wednesday, August 28, facing charges of murder and attempted murder related to the incident, which has deeply saddened the local community. The accused are 44-year-old Mohammed Sabir and 25-year-old Callum Sunderland, who have so far denied the charges.

The defendants have been remanded in custody until their next hearing on Thursday, August 29. According to the police, Sunderland was arrested following searches in the area in the early hours of Monday morning. Sabir was arrested after turning himself in at a police station later that morning.

West Yorkshire Police stated that four other individuals are being investigated in connection with the case, including a 39-year-old man who was arrested at the scene as a suspect for murder and remains in critical condition in hospital.

It is worth noting that the victims of the fatal fire in Bradford were 29-year-old Briony Gayle, the mother of the children, her two daughters—nine-year-old Dennisty Burt and 22-month-old (nearly two years old) Aubrey Burt—and her five-year-old son, Oscar Burt.

The mother was found dead by emergency services who had arrived to rescue the family, while the children were taken to the hospital but did not survive. From the beginning, police concluded that the fire was deliberately set, with subsequent investigations suggesting the possibility of some form of domestic violence.

In a statement released by the police last week, the victims’ family expressed that the loss of Briony and the children, referred to as “Chuch, Oggy, and Strawberry,” has brought them “incredible grief and sorrow.”

“We are still trying to come to terms with what happened to our beautiful family. No words can describe how we feel, and no words could ever make up for the profound loss we are experiencing now,” said the family.