Rapist gets another life sentence for 'grudge' arson attacks on Shrewsbury pub
A man was involved in three separate arson attacks at a Shrewsbury pub because he held a grudge against a man living at the premises, a court has heard.
The incidents date back more than seven years when Matthew Gill was a teenager and happened during a period when he committed a series of arson attacks across the town.
In one of the fires at the Severn Apprentice pub in Coton Hill, the victim, wearing only his boxer shorts, managed to escape from the late night blaze.
At Shrewsbury Crown Court, Judge Peter Barrie said the deliberate arson attacks at the pub were acts of “wickedness” and he was satisfied the defendant was dangerous.
He imposed a concurrent discretionary life sentence on Gill, 25, which includes an immediate period of five years and two months custody.
This overlaps a previous life sentence imposed in July 2015 for the brutal rape of a teenage girl.
Judge Barrie said the effect of the fresh sentence extended the minimum period of custody by 20 months, meaning Gill will not now be eligible to be considered for parole until July, 2022, and he will be on license for the rest of his life.
Included in the sentence were the three arson offences on the pub and a further 18 offences which Gill had taken into consideration – 13 of which were arson attacks.
At an earlier hearing the serial arsonist, formerly of Reedham Road in Herongate, Shrewsbury, had pleaded guilty to a charge of arson with intent to endanger life in November, 2009 and two other fires at the pub in December, 2009 and January, 2010.
Gill, who is currently serving the initial discretionary life term for raping a 14-year-old girl in May 2015, appeared at court via a video link from prison.
The court had heard that grabbed the teenager as she walked to school and dragged her into bushes before she was stabbed with a knife, gagged, bound and raped.
The victim was screaming and pleading for her life as she was threatened with a kitchen knife during the horrific 20-minute ordeal.
Gill had selected his young victim at random having watched a number of violent rape pornography films on his laptop the previous night. The offence took place on a footpath running through a wooded area off the Ellesmere Road and Gill was arrested the same day.
Passing sentence in July 2015 Judge Robin Onions said that Gill had a history of harbouring revenge over many years and that he posed a real danger for the foreseeable future.
He said reports showed Gill may well have some a personality disorder but was not suffering from any psychiatric illness.
In 2011, Gill was sent to a Young Offenders Institution for four years for setting fire to his neighbour’s house while the victim’s wife and baby were inside.
The court heard that police were only aware of Gill being responsible for the series of offences he had taken into consideration because he had volunteered that he was the culprit.
There was an arson attack on Citroen Saxo in Ashfields Road in April 2009 and three incidents in August when an ignited magazine was put through the letterbox in Kendal Road, a Renault Clio damaged at Matalan, in Brixton Way, Harelscott, and a Citroen Berlingo was damaged in Fitzallan Road.
Gill was involved in five further arson attacks in October, 2010, when lighted newspaper was put through letterboxes in Lapwood Drive and Thornton Road, clothes on a washing line were set alight in Meadow Farm Drive, a wheelie bin and Vauxhall Astra damaged in Coldridge Drive and in Thornton Road a garden shed was destroyed.
The court has heard that between February and April 2015, prior to the rape, Gill struck twice at the Greenfield Bowling Club where there was an arson attack and attempted burglary, an arson attack at the Relate charity shop in Mardol, attempted burglaries at Vintage Interiors, Coton Hill, and the Relate furniture and charity shop in Whitchurch Road, and arson attacks on five council wheelie bins in Coton Hill and one in Mytton Grove and an arson attack on a Peugeot van in Falstaff Street.
