Vengeful man went from house to house armed with petrol bomb
DEFENDANT’S WHOLE STREET
A FURIOUS man armed with a molotov cocktail petrol bomb went round knocking on people’s doors trying to find someone he wanted to exact revenge upon.
Dominic Woods, 30, had the fuelfilled container concealed inside his rucksack as he made threats to set fire to homes in Dupont Gardens, off Tournament Road, in Glenfield.
He claimed he wanted to kill the person he was seeking, Leicester Crown Court was told.
Woods, of Bramley Road, Leicester, pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon – namely petrol in a glass bottle, with a source of ignition – on September 2 last year.
His barrister, Katherine Kelleher, said Woods had been drinking before the incident.
She said: “He used it as a threat but didn’t actually use it.
“It was never produced and nobody saw this weapon.”
Tom Welshman, prosecuting, said the defendant had a cigarette lighter with him when he made threats to set Dupont Gardens on fire.
Sentencing, Judge Philip Head said: “Rightly or wrongly, you had a grievance against someone when you’d been drinking.”
He said that Woods had somehow taken “quite a lot of petrol to (his) home address” and prepared the weapon.
The judge added: “You then set off in search of the person you were looking for, knocking on doors of homes in Dupont Gardens, asking for him.
“You knocked on a woman’s door and said if you didn’t find him you’d set the whole of Dupont Gardens on fire.
“You had with you a rucksack with, what’s best described as a Molotov cocktail, in it.”
A Molotov cocktail is a generic name for a bottle-based incendiary device.
“You wanted retribution against the person, for whatever reason you held against him,” the judge said.
“It’s fair to say it was never produced (but) Molotov cocktails are highly dangerous weapons.
“You had the means (a lighter) and certainly stated an intention to use it.
“It was capable of causing serious alarm or distress if you had produced it, but I accept you didn’t.
“This happened six days after you were given a community order for an alcohol-related offence that had nothing to do with this incident.
“You also have a previous conviction for criminal damage in 2018.”
Woods was jailed for 32 weeks, of which he was liable to serve half.
The court was told he had already served the equivalent time on remand in custody awaiting sentence, and was thus eligible for release.
THREATS TO ‘BURN DOWN’