A woman has told how she is still ‘living with the terror’ of an arson attack which claimed the life of her young cousin Joe McCafferty 20 years ago.

Chantelle Cunningham was just 12 years old and managed to raise the alarm for her family when petrol was poured through the letterbox of her home in Haywood Avenue, Marsh, and set alight in May 1997 .

Chantelle said: “I am living with that terror that was inflicted on me and my family when I was 12 years old. I am empty, alone, lost and then I think well, why?

“I shouldn’t live like that, but I do.”

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Chantelle has spoken out in the run up to the 20th anniversary of the tragedy and recalls vividly her sheer panic.

In an interview with BBC Radio Leeds she said: “It was that hot I could feel my skin lifting off my body, it was so intense, I just remember screaming, I couldn’t breathe, any tiny little breath it burned.”

Chantelle managed to wake her mum Debbie and her step sister Shereen who escaped from an upstairs window but the flames and smoke were so intense it was impossible to reach her young cousins Joe and Nicky. They were rescued by firefighters but Joe died later in hospital.

Chantelle, now 32, added: “I was in the room with Joe only steps away from me and it just went quiet and I felt as if I wasn’t there for a minute and then all of a sudden it just all came back more intense than ever and I could here my mum screaming outside for me to get out.

“I could feel my head burning, the side of my face, my feet and I just crawled out of the window and my neighbour managed to break my fall and catch me.

Joe McCafferty
The home on Haywood Avenue after the fire

“It was just screams and terrors outside just absolute mayhem.”

Detectives have made numerous appeals in the last two decades as they attempt to track down Joe’s killer.

In May 2015 a man aged 65 and a woman aged 60 were arrested but were later released without charge.

Detectives thought at the time a main clue to the killer was the burned remains of the green plastic Unipart container used for motor oil. It was dark green, used for 20/50 motor oil and was last made in 1994.

Anyone with information should contact West Yorkshire Police on 101.