Landlord tried to torch home with tenant still inside

Former friends fell out in row over rent

‘Just as he was trying to light the piece of paper the police came up behind him with their handcuffs and put them on him’

An angry landlord tried to set fire to an outbuilding with a tenant inside in a row over rent. James Gichigi doused the garden home in petrol and tried sending it up in flames - despite former friend Scott Hancock still being inside it.

But police handcuffed the enraged 53-year-old before he could drop burning paper on the porch.

Mr Hancock rented the property at the bottom of Gichigi’s garden in Canterbury for two years before their friendship soured.

Previously, Gichigi argued he poured fuel over the wooden outbuilding only to scare off Mr Hancock but there was no attempt of ignition.

But, on Monday he pleaded guilty to attempted arson with intent to endanger life at Canterbury Crown Court, with sentencing adjourned to the summer.

Gichigi’s trial was derailed after just a day last year when a number of jurors were forced into self-isolation in accordance with Covid-19 regulations. Mr Hancock told jurors he was woken by Gichigi shouting

“I’m going to burn you out” and, rather than confront the landlord, dialled 999.

“I ignored (the shouting) for a while, I didn’t want to confront and fight him, in the end I phoned the police,” he said. But when he eventually tried to flee, Gichigi stood at the door trying to burn his shed down. “Just as he was trying to light the piece of paper the police came up behind him with their handcuffs and put them on him,” he continued.

The court heard Gichigi threatened to stab a number of those present, and he told officers, while alluding to Mr Hancock: “I would so like to kill this guy.” Gichigi originally claimed he poured petrol inside a lawnmower next to the shed but later admitted using the fuel to soak Mr Hancock’s makeshift home to frighten him. He denied sparking a flame.

But this week Gichigi, of Cockering Road in Thanington, pleaded guilty to attempted arson with intent to endanger life on the day of trial.

He also pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and one of causing actual bodily harm relating to a separate incident in 2019.

Judge Rupert Lowe adjourned sentencing until June 29 for reports into “dangerousness”, to establish whether Gichigi poses a significant risk to public safety.

The year he has already spent on remand will count towards any custodial sentence he receives.

Gichigi pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court