JAILED: Businessman locked up for five years over petrol bomb revenge attack on ex-lover
A 'devious' businessman who recruited crooks to bombard his former lover's home – culminating in a petrol bomb attack – has been locked up for five years.
Robert McNaughton was desperate to get back with Sharon McCann, his partner of eight years from who he split before serving a short jail term in 2013.
When she refused to rekindle their relationship following his release he began a relentless hate campaign including six attacks on her home in Hopwood Close, Halesowen, in the space of two months.
In the final attack a petrol bomb was thrown through the rear window of a car on Miss McCann's drive and exploded, causing the flames to spread to the front of her home.
The bomb was thrown by 20-year-old Joden Smith, a friend of 44-year-old Matthew Barker – both of Leicestershire – who was recruited by McNaughton to assist in his plot when the pair had shared a prison cell.
McNaughton, 51, had been behind bars after refusing to remove a 40ft high mountain of rubbish at the Moor Street, Brierley Hill, site of Refuse Derived Fuel, the recycling business of which he was a director until it folded.
At Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday McNaughton, of Tenter Drive, Halesowen, was jailed for five years having being found guilty of conspiring to commit criminal damage by a jury.
Judge Simon Ward said McNaughton had also played 'cruel mind-games' on Miss McCann which included blaming the attacks on a gang of Romanian thugs and posting an explicit sexual image of her online.
Passing sentence, he added: "These devious mind-games also included you creating a fake Facebook account in her name.
"It was either harm just for the sake of it or possibly you may have hoped for reconciliation. The cumulative effect of the campaign was it she wasn't sure what would happen next."
The court heard Miss McCann has sold her Halesowen home and moved abroad.
The wrecking spree at her home began on December 7, 2014, when the tyres of a car parked outside were punctured and the front window of the house was smashed eleven days later.
Other attacks saw a car windscreen smashed, a slab thrown through a window and red paint thrown over the front of the house.
Smith was jailed for four years for arson, reckless as to whether life was endangered, and received a 27 month sentence for the conspiracy, to run concurrently, having admitted his role.
Barker, who admitted conspiracy to commit criminal damage, was jailed for 43 months.
