Dyson Allen has been jailed for life with a minimum term of nine years for killing four siblings in an arson attack in Freckleton. Four-year-old twins Holly and Ella Smith and their two-year-old brother Jordan died in the blaze last January.
Sentencing Dyson Allen to life, Mr Justice Males said he had no motive to harm the children or anyone in the Smith family.
He said:
So why did you do it? In one sense, what prompted you to do this terrible thing - not only starting a fire in a room where defenceless young children were asleep but waiting for several minutes before raising the alarm - is a mystery.
But in another sense, why you did it seems clear enough.
It was because you were out of your head due to the lethal combination of alcohol and cannabis which you had taken that day and because of your fascination with fire, particularly when you are affected by drink or drugs.
A teenager will be sentenced today over the deaths of four siblings from a house fire.
Four-year-old twins Holly and Ella Smith and their two-year-old brother Jordan were asleep as the blaze took hold in Freckleton, Lancashire, while elder brother Reece, 19, was overcome by fumes as he went upstairs to try to rescue them.
Reece, 19, Holly and Ella, four, and two-year-old Jordan all died in the blaze. Credit: Lancashire Police/ITV News Granada
All four died from the effects of smoke inhalation from the blaze on January 7 last year.
In July, Dyson Allen, 19, was convicted of four counts of manslaughter by a jury at Preston Crown Court who found he had set fire to a bedroom wardrobe. He was cleared of the siblings' murders but was told by a judge that he would face "a substantial prison sentence".
