Ex-taxi-man jailed after house arson A depressed former cabbie who put his neighbours at risk by setting his house on fire has been jailed for two and a half years.
Paul Sawyers, 49, who admitted arson while being reckless of whether life was endangered, used a borrowed lighter to start the fire - and then stood casually in his garden to watch his house burn.
The defendant committed the offence on January 19, claiming he torched his Cranbourne Road home in Raffles because his pleas for help with mental health issues were ignored.
Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting at Carlisle Crown Court, described how Sawyers had left the doors of his terraced house open, maximising the smoke damage from the fire.
It later emerged that he used the lighter to ignite the curtains in his kitchen, the sofa in his living room, and to put a chip pan on a lit gas ring in the kitchen.
At 7.20am that day, he had asked his neighbour for the lighter – and 40 minutes later his home was ablaze.
“When the police attended,” said the lawyer, “Mr Sawyers casually returned the lighter to the neighbour from whom he had borrowed it as if nothing had happened. He made admissions to the police, saying he had indeed caused the fire.
“He said he wasn't trying to harm other people, just himself. He made comments about not being listened to. He said his pleas for help which he had made on a regular basis had usually been ignored.”
Sawyers was asked by police why he had not immediately called the Fire Service after starting the fire, given he had a mobile phone with him.
Mr Rogerson went on: “He said that he was giving it five minutes because he was waiting for the house to go up flames. He said he had stopped a woman who was on her way to work and asked her to ring them.
“He said he would have done it [called the fire service] eventually.”
A professor of psychiatry who examined the defendant had concluded that he could not diagnose any psychiatric or mental health disorder to explain the offence.
Claire Thomas, for Sawyers, said he had suffered from depression to varying degrees for a significant period. He had left school and then worked for 28 years at Carlisle's McVitie's biscuit factory but then decided he needed a change.
“So he took his taxi badges and bought a car and began to drive the taxi,” said the barrister. “It was initially very successful but things began to deteriorate when his relationship broke down. He bought the house which is the subject of these proceedings and he was living there alone.”
She said Sawyers was living a solitary life, and became increasingly depressed to the point where he had to be signed off work and depend on benefits.
“He wasn't thinking straight at the time,” said Miss Thomas, adding that he felt remorse for what he had done.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Davies said it was clear that at the time he committed the offence the defendant's life had spiralled out of control. “Bizarrely, you asked a neighbour for a lighter,” said the judge.
The neighbour was in two minds about whether to hand over the lighter because Sawyers had exhibited strange behaviour in previous days.
The judge added: “It was apparent that this was deliberate and intentional to make the house and inferno... There was a real danger of other people losing their lives. Firefighters had to use breathing apparatus, so their lives were put at risk.”
The judge said that given the risk posed to others he had no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence.
The judge also imposed a restraining order, which prohibits the defendant from contacting his neighbours. The court heard that Sawyers is buying the house on a mortgage but was currently in arrears.
source:
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/Ex-ta ... 7db9b4c-ds
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