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Drunk grandmother arsonist was 'trying to wake daughter'

A drunk grandmother started a potentially 'catastrophic' fire outside her daughter's flat to wake her after she was locked out.

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Julie Battisson's daughter and granddaughter were inside at the time, a court heard.

She was locked out on February 2 following a day out drinking, and after banging on the door with no reply she set a fire to try to set off an alarm.

Battisson was jailed for 18 months for arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

During the hearing prosecuting barrister Miss Cathlyn Orchard said Battisson had been out watching a Six Nations rugby match, and had drunk 10 pints of Speckled Hen beer.

She was living with her 19-year-old daughter and young child at a first-floor flat in Broad Lane, Shelfield, and while out received a message telling her not to go there if she was drunk.

Despite this, she returned to the flat later that night, and tried banging on the door and shouting.

Miss Orchard said: "Her neighbour, who was at home with her mother-in-law and two children, awoke.

"She could smell smoke in the hallway, went out onto the landing and could see smoke.

"She saw the defendant standing there and throwing things out of the window. A bag of clothes the neighbour had put out for charity was open, and she was taking out clothes, putting them on the floor and they were smouldering."

The court was told that Battisson, from Marklew Close in Walsall Wood, had set fire to some of the clothes, but when she realised what she had done began to throw them out of the window.

But next to where she set the fire there was also a mattress and a number of cardboard boxes, which also could have caught fire.

She then waited for the police to arrive, after a fire crew from Aldridge station was called to the scene.

Defending barrister Mr Devon Small said: "She clearly didn't think through the consequences of her actions."

He added: "In her interview she fully admitted what had happened, and said she had no intention whatsoever to cause any harm to anyone inside the building, and only meant to wake up her daughter.

Sentencing her, Judge Robin Onions said: "The damage and actual impact is low, but the potential was catastrophic."

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