Man, 21, escapes jail for arson

Paul Bruton had the previous day received a notice of civil court proceedings over an injury the neighbour had suffered in an accident when he was the other driver, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

And he went 'completely over the top' after threatening her, and being taunted on Facebook that he would not 'have the bottle' to carry the threats out.

Bruton, of Barnfield Avenue, Nailsworth, had admitted arson before Stroud Magistrates and was committed to the crown court for sentence. He received an eight month prison term suspended for 12 months.

Jos Thomas, outlining the facts before Judge Martin Picton, said the offence took place on May 6 this year.

On that evening a young woman was at home with her mother in Barnfield Road, Nailsworth, and her Ford Ka was parked outside.

She looked out and saw that the car was on fire and although a neighbour helped to put the fire out before the Fire Brigade arrived the car was a complete write-off.

Three years earlier she had been involved in a car accident, in which Bruton was the other driver.

And Mr Thomas said she had recently decided to make a claim for injury suffered in that accident.

The solicitor's letter about the claim had arrived at Bruton's home the previous day he said, and he threatened her over the telephone, saying that more than her collar bone would be broken if she went ahead with the case.

"But there was also a large amount of traffic on Facebook threatening that people would burn in hell," he said.

"Bruton was provoked by others on the social networking website saying he would not have the bottle to do anything about it."

But a little later he set fire to the car and then rang a friend to tell him what he had done. He arranged to be arrested the following morning.

The court was told he had no previous convictions and was of previous good character.

Judge Picton said the case was as bizarre as he had come across in a very long time.

"This was a gross over-reaction to civil litigation and there were lots of other ways to express himself rather than buying petrol and setting fire to a car," he said.

"He did not anticipate the effect it would have - he cannot have been thinking straight. After he had done it he had to tell someone and then he walked into a police station.

"As soon as the car caught fire he realised what he had done and panicked."

Steve Young defending, said he too was trying and make sense of it.

"It was not a claim against him but against his insurance company, yet it triggered such a reaction. It was his personality and self esteem following the taunts on facebook that made him go completely over the top," he said.

"All arson cases are very worrying, but this is a very odd set of circumstances. As a direct consequence he has lost his job and has no income."

Sentencing Bruton, Judge Picton said the case passed the custody threshold. "It was a gravely worrying thing to do. The only question is whether the sentence can be suspended.

"I struggle to see why you did it or the reasons you did it. It was astonishingly stupid, muddle-headed thinking."

He told Bruton that normally, arsonists were sent straight to prison but in his case he was prepared to suspend the term.

As well as the suspended sentence, Bruton was ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work for the community and pay £460 compensation to the owner of the car.