Endris Mohammed and his children
© Daily StarEndris Mohammed and his children Saros, 8, and Leanor, 6.
A father who smothered his two children with a petrol-soaked cloth after deciding that it was a "good day to die" has been found guilty of murder.

Endris Mohammed, 47, an Uber driver, tried to kill his wife by tampering with a gas pipe and setting fire to their home in Birmingham. He then set fire to himself in his car and suffered severe burns but survived.

Mohammed had denied the attempted murder of his wife, Penil Teklehaimanot, 37, and the murder of his son Saros, eight, and daughter Leanor, six, claiming diminished responsibility because of a depressive disorder. The defence said that he had financial troubles, partly because he had to pay £250 a week to rent his car.

Ms Teklehaimanot told the court that her husband had not seemed angry or irritable in the months before her children were killed and had played on an Xbox with their son hours before he killed him. She described him as "the perfect dad" and said that he was a gentle, quiet man.

She was sleeping upstairs when Mohammed smothered their children during a half-term "sleepover" in the lounge on October 28 last year. Ms Teklehaimanot said that she was woken by a smoke alarm and initially thought that her children were asleep when she was unable to wake them. She then dragged them outside, not realising that they were dead.

Mohammed, who came to Britain as an asylum seeker from Ethiopia, said that he had wanted to end his own life because his "hopes for a good life in England" had failed. He told police that he bought the petrol with the intention to kill only himself and thought "today would be a nice day to die".

He then apparently thought of how his death might have affected the children. He said that he smothered them so that they would not suffer in the fire.

Jonas Hankin, QC, for the prosecution, said: "The true reasons why the defendant killed his children and tried to kill his wife may never be known. His explanation for killing the children was that they would be better off dead because he intended to kill himself."

Mohammed was found guilty of murder and attempted murder. He will be sentenced on Monday.