Convicted arsonist set fire to woman's house weeks after moving in
A woman was lucky to escape with her life after a convicted arsonist she had allowed to share her home set light to it just weeks after moving in, a judge heard.
The blaze caused £9,000 damage to the property in Wood Common Grange, Pelsall, on November 29 last year and saw Kyle Price jailed for six years at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.
The 26-year-old struck after the pair argued during a day out in Evesham and she ordered him out of the address where he had been renting a room, explained Mr Michael Grey, prosecuting.
The defendant had a history of resorting to arson to hit back at people who upset him. He was sent a Young Offenders Institution for over three years in 2010 after setting light to the corridor of a Gloucester hostel following a row with an occupant.
Price claimed to have been in an intimate relationship with the woman whose house he torched in Pelsall but she denied the claim, the court heard.
Mr Grey continued: "They had been out for drinks and, after an argument, she asked him to leave. That evening she smelt smoke, went upstairs and found her bedroom was on fire."
The blaze started in the bed and spread to the floor, wrecking the room before being put out by fire fighters wearing breathing apparatus. Price was found lying outside the address with singed eyebrows and hair when the crew arrived at the scene.
He was convicted after a trial of causing arson while reckless as to whether life was endangered and had been remanded in custody for pre sentence reports. He was said to have a personality disorder, an untreatable medical condition.
Mr Brereton Horne, defending, commented: "He suffered the effects of heat but luckily nobody else was injured and the damage was confined to the room where the fire started."
Judge Simon Ward jailed father-of-one Price, who also had several previous convictions for causing criminal damage and is now of no fixed address: "Following an argument with the woman with whom you had formed some kind of relationship, you went upstairs and set light to her bed.
"She called 999 and you pretended you were the victim. You gave no thought to whether life was endangered. You blamed her and still do.
"You have a tendency to react criminally to people who upset you. This has now triggered two cases of arson and your offending has not reduced as you have got older. I am sure there is a risk to the public from you in the future but I am not satisfied that it is sufficiently significant to justify an indeterminate sentence for public protection."
