Jailed: Telford man, 29, pushed flaming paper through love rival's letterbox
A Telford man has been jailed for four years after pushing a flaming paper through the letterbox of a love rival.
Christopher Brooks had earlier made threats to kill Kieron Thomas before going round to his house late at night in Wildwood, Woodside.
Mr Thomas and his family were asleep upstairs at the time on July 1 last year – and only the smoke alarm going off prevented "catastrophic consequences", Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.
In the end there was only minimal damage to the letterbox and no-one was injured, the court was told.
Brooks, 29, of Princess Anne Gardens, Dawley, got involved in a long-running row with Mr Thomas after he started seeing the defendant's ex-partner.
He admitted arson with intent to endanger life and making threats to kill at a previous court hearing and appeared yesterday to be sentenced.
Judge Peter Barrie said: "It is clear this offence arose out of your upset when a relationship you had came to an end.
"It is clear you were behaving like this because you were under the influence of alcohol. But that is no mitigation and no excuse – people have to remain responsible for their actions.
"You allowed this dispute – in which you were completely in the wrong – to escalate to this level where you were making serious threats to kill and trying to set fire to the house.
"It was only by chance the paper didn't land on something that could have sparked it and led to catastrophic consequences.
"Deliberately setting fire to an occupied dwelling house in the middle of the night is an extremely serious offence to commit."
Mr Paul Smith, for Brooks, had tried to argue for his client to be spared jail, saying it was an "unusual case" for such a serious charge.
"It was a rather pathetic attempt really, there were no accelerants used and it was just a piece of lit paper," Mr Smith said. "It caused minimal damage to the letterbox.
"Plainly alcohol was a very significant disinhibitor. His brother had died not long before that and the funeral had been a few days before. He was in an emotional state and had been drinking all day."
