2011: BRIERLEY HILL MAN JAILED FOR STARTING FIRE IN BID TO KILL FORMER GIRLFRIEND
A Brierley Hill man who torched a house in a bid to kill himself and his ex-girlfriend has been jailed.Wolverhampton Crown Court was told Shane Russon, aged 33, set light to his former home and watched the flames grow as a four-year-old boy stood beside him.
As he jailed Russon for four-and-a-half years, Judge John Wait said it was clearly a deliberate act that could have resulted in "multiple loss of life" and ruled only a substantial sentence was appropriate.
Christopher O'Gorman, prosecuting, said Russon's partner Debbie Gannon found flames leaping in the air when she ran into the room from a bedroom at the Oldbury house where she had been with their 12-week-old son.
Russon, who had been drinking heavily, told her: "I want to kill myself and take the rest of you with me," as she frantically ran to the kitchen to get water to pour over the flames.
Fire investigators were quickly on the scene and they determined the fire at the three bedroomed terrace property in Abberley Road, had been started deliberately.
Russon, of Gorsty Avenue, Brockmoor, admitted arson and being reckless as to whether life was endangered and he was told by the judge, "Happily Miss Gannon responded very promptly to prevent the situation developing." The judge added: "You clearly represent a substantial danger to the life of yourself and others." Mr O'Gorman said the flames were a foot high when Miss Gannon entered the lounge where Russon was sitting on the sofa doing nothing as her four-year-old son stood nearby.
After his arrest by police Russon told officers: "Yes.
I did it.
I burnt it down".
Investigations showed that the fire could not have began accidentally.
It had been started by a naked flame being applied to newspaper.
Samantha Powis, for Russon, said her client accepted the consequences of his actions could have been "utterly disastrous".
She said: "He was drunk, depressed and not in his right mind.
He did not give a thought to the other people inside the house." The judge was told that Russon had started drinking alcohol when he was 13 years of age and, after the offence, Miss Gannon ended their relationship.
