8:00am Friday 3rd September 2010
A BARKING dog alerted a sleeping family after a fire was started outside their front door by a neighbour with a grudge.
Worcester Crown Court was told that the pet roused Susan Dovey, who woke up her son Vincent and a friend. Mrs Dovey went into the hallway of her maisonette to see flames.
Drunken Graham Sutton had started the fire with paper and petrol, the court was told. But firefighters quickly brought the blaze under control, with damage limited to the door and a balcony accessing a central stairway. No one was hurt.
Sutton, aged 27, of Frobisher Court, Moor Park, Hereford, admitted arson with intent to endanger life. The court was told there was a history of trouble between the Sutton and Dovey families.
Charles Hardy, prosecuting, said that Sutton had boasted to a relative on the night of the fire that he was going to “set something alight”.
Jailing him for five years, Judge John Cavell said Sutton had committed “a wicked act” which only by good fortune had not resulted in injury or death, with people asleep when the fire was started.
But the judge said that letters of remorse written by Sutton to the court showed a different kind of person to the one who carried out the crime when drunk.
The court was told that the Dovey family lived on the second and third floors of the Frobisher Court block. Mrs Dovey was watching TV on February 12 when she fell asleep on a sofa. On the floor above, her son and his friend had also fallen asleep while watching a film.
In the early hours Mrs Dovey was alerted to the blaze by her barking dog. Near the scene, police found a petrol can which had contained lawnmower fuel with the top missing and also recovered a lighter.
In interview, Sutton – with a previous conviction for alcohol-related violence – told officers he had drunk “a lot” on the night, held a grudge against Vincent Dovey, and started the fire to scare him.
Julian Harris, defending, said a “distraught”
Sutton would carry the shame of the fire all his life. Sutton, said Mr Harris, now recognised that binge drinking had been his downfall and resolved never to touch alcohol again.
The court was told that, during his time in custody on remand, Sutton had assisted other inmates after the suicide of another prisoner.
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