'Cold-blooded' teens jailed for restaurant arson

Two teenagers have been jailed for 10 years for their role in an arson attack at an east London Indian restaurant in which diners were seriously injured.

The boys, now 17, were armed with machetes when they went into Indian Aroma in Gants Hill in August 2025.

They held the doors shut while a third person poured fuel around the room and set it alight.

The pair - who cannot be named because of their age - had denied the charges but were convicted of arson with intent to endanger life.

A married couple in their 20s were dining at Indian Aroma when the masked attackers entered.

They poured petrol on the woman, which led to her being seriously burned and her clothes melting to her skin. She was placed in a medically-induced coma to recover from burns to 50% of her total body surface area, 45% of which were full-thickness burns.

Her husband ran out of the restaurant on fire and sustained mixed-depth burns to more than half of his total body surface area.

The prosecution barrister said was a "completely traumatic and appalling incident" and has "transformed their personal lives".

Another victim described the "agonising physical pain" and another said their life had been "upended" by the attack.

Sentencing the pair on Friday, Judge Michael Grieve KC described the attack as "sophisticated and professional" with a high degree of planning.

He added: "You were both fully aware of the almost inevitable consequences, namely to cause serious harm, up to and including death, to complete strangers."

He added that the victims "have suffered agonising and life-changing injuries - and it could have been worse.

"I have no doubt that you were carrying out this operation on the direction of some older and more experienced criminal who has not been identified… but you did so with cold blood."

Mark Graffius KC, defending one of the youths, said the petrol was not poured "deliberately" on the customers' shoulders.

He added that the petrol was also not lit while the customers were all seated.

Nneka Akudolu KC, representing the other youth, said her client was "sorry" for the "painful and life-changing injuries" the victims suffered.

She said: "(He) cannot undo the past but he is asking this court not to make the sentence too crushingly long that he cannot look forward to an opportunity to build a very different future."

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