Firefighters raced to put out a fire at a home in Scunthorpe which had been started deliberately, after one of the occupants ‘thought there was a ghost or evil spirit’ there.
The house on Victoria Road was a home of multiple occupancy to support people with vulnerabilities. Damage by the fire was estimated at nearly £16,000.
At Grimsby Crown Court, Carl Bond, 59 admitted arson and being reckless that life would be endangered when he started the fire around 8.30pm on September 7 last year. Prosecuting, Harry Bradford said a member of the public alerted Humberside Fire and Rescue Service and after the fire was put out investigators found the fire had been started deliberately. The home, provided by North Lincolnshire Council, supported vulnerable people. It was empty at the time of the fire.
Mr Bradford said Bond handed himself in at the town’s police station and gave full admissions of his guilt, claiming his mental health had been bad. The prosecutor said Bond had 47 convictions for 94 offences, mostly for dishonesty.
Mr Bradford said there had been a high risk of serious harm in the arson attack which involved a flammable liquid and a flint.
Mitigating, Ian Durant presented a psychiatric report and a pre-sentence report to the judge. The defence barrister said his client claimed there was something evil in the property, or a ghost. He said he also felt bad because the property was “sucking the life out of him.”
Mr Durant said his client now felt stable in prison and meets a psychiatrist once a week. The defence barrister said his client was not in the right frame of mind at the time but had not acted out of revenge.
“The consequences of his actions could have been catastrophic. Fortunately they were not,” said Mr Durant. Judge Gurdial Singh jailed Bond for four years with a three year extension on licence due to the risk of danger he poses to the public.
Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe
