Residents evacuated after ‘childish’ boyfriend drunkenly sparked blaze at Castleford home

The property on Middle Lower Oxford Street in Castleford had to be cleared by firefighters after smoke triggered the alarms.

Graham Sowerby, 29, was described by the judge Leeds Crown Court as “pathetic and ridiculous” after piling up bags of rubbish and torching them outside the basement area before leaving the scene in the early hours of November 19 last year.

He had been drinking all day and began arguing with his partner when she asked him to stop, prosecutor John Hobley told Leeds Crown Court.

She later said they had been together for five years and it was blighted by his drinking and outbursts of drunken violence. On this occasion, he became verbally aggressive so she phoned the police to ask for him to be removed, which they did.

But Sowerby returned at midnight and began shouting up at the bedroom. The police returned but he left again, only to return again at around 2.45am and threatened to “beat the door in”.

He then grabbed the bags and set fire to them while continuing to shout. The woman and her housemate fled the house and was struggling to breathe due to smoke inhalation.

Sowerby, of Pinder Street, Farnley, was arrested and admitted being present but denied starting the fire. He later admitted arson and possession of cannabis after a small quantity of the drug was found on him.

He has four previous convictions for six offences. Mitigating, Kara Frith said: “He had the expectation the fire would burn out and not spread. He did not realise the smoke would enter the house. He accepts it was appalling behaviour.”

She said he wants to get a job and stop drinking, after she said his father disapproved of alcohol.

Judge Penelope Belcher said: “This was nasty offending and you recognise that. You are very fortunate. This could have escalated into something much worse. You recognise how ridiculous, pathetic and childish it was.”

She gave him a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, along with a 90-day alcohol abstinence requirement and 90-day electronically-tagged curfew order.