Man repaid kindness with arson attack
A HOMELESS man torched the home of a friend who allowed him somewhere to stay during the beginning stages of the pandemic.
Paul Whiting set several fires in the house of a friend and former partner who allowed him to stay at her address in Christchurch Road, Newport, in March 2020.
The 65-year-old came up to the woman’s bedroom in the early hours of the morning offering her a cup of tea, a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard.
When she went downstairs later she found Whiting lighting pieces of tissue paper and throwing them into a wastepaper bin that was already alight.
After she frantically tried to extinguish the flames Whiting went upstairs and set two bedside cabinets and the mattress of one bedroom on fire.
The court heard the fire spread and caused such severe damage the woman is still unable to move back into the house almost a year later.
Summing up the facts of the case at sentencing Recorder Paul Lewis said Whiting was “effectively homeless” when a friend and former partner allowed him to stay in a house that she owned.
“She had put the house where you were staying on the market and told you that you were allowed to stay there until the sale was completed,” he said.
Recorder Lewis said the homeowner told Whiting that the sale of the house was going to go through and he would need to leave.
On the morning of March 26 Recorder Lewis said the woman was asleep in bed when Whiting woke her up saying he had a cup of tea for her and that he was “planning to light a fire”.
Believing he meant a bonfire outside she replied that he could not do that until the evening.
When she went downstairs shortly afterwards she began to choke on smoke and saw Whiting lighting tissue paper which he was dropping into a burning waste paper bin.
She attempted to douse the fire with water but Whiting then went upstairs and set three separate fires in one of the bedrooms.
“Both bedside cabinets were set ablaze as was the mattress on the bed,” Recorder Lewis said. The house owner was unable to extinguish the flames in the bedroom and they “spread rapidly”.
“There was charring to walls, the ceiling joists, and mattress of the bed were charred,” Recorder Lewis said.
“The fire service later confirmed there were multiple seats of fire and also concluded that the fire had been deliberately set by application of a naked flame to combustible materials.”
Whiting climbed out on to the roof of an adjoining home where he was arrested by officers. In interview he denied setting any fire in the woman’s home and maintained this denial through to trial.
Prosecutor Claire Wilkes said the damage to the home was so severe that a year later the property’s owner has been unable to move back in.
Whiting, of HMP Cardiff, denied a single charge of arson but was found guilty following a trial on October 16, 2020.
He was jailed four years and a restraining order was put in place barring him from contacting his victim for a period of 10 years. He must also pay a victim surcharge of £181 upon his release.
A MUM has spoken about how she tried to take her own life after months of waiting for an operation left her in unbearable pain.
Storm Price, 28, from Maindee, Newport, was diagnosed with gallstones in late 2019 and was originally told she would be able to have an emergency operation through the NHS.
She was told about the operation in early 2020, but after several weeks was told she would not be operated on until September.
And during lockdown last year she was told the operation would be further delayed and was unlikely to take place before summer 2021.
Storm said she was so crippled with pain that she could barely walk or look after her and her husband Daryl’s son, now two, properly. Eleven months on her quality of life had deteriorated to the point where she even tried to take her own life.
“I had no quality of life, I was severely depressed – highly medicated but still in a lot of pain,” she said. “I had a one-year-old I had to try and look after while my husband had to work. My brother had to move in to help me because I physically couldn’t look after my son. Most days I was in so much pain I couldn’t get out of bed. And I was like that for 11 months. I was always in A&E or ringing my doctor.”
Last year Storm told the Echo that her condition left her with pain all through her body, often for several hours a day, and sometimes it meant she could only walk for five minutes before having to sit down.
At the time she described the pain as similar to labour and it was sometimes so bad that she would pass out.
A GoFundMe campaign, set up by husband Daryl last year, raised thousands of pounds and she finally had an operation to remove her gallbladder privately last September.
Earlier this year Storm was contacted by the NHS and told her operation – which they were unaware she’d already had – might not be until later in 2021 or even into 2022.
“I received a phone call from the NHS at the beginning of February saying my pre-op assessment would be around May,” she said.
“I asked ‘how long would it take after that for my operation?’ They said they couldn’t be sure but it could be the end of this year or possibly pushed back to next year.”
Storm said she struggled to return to normal after her operation and
The bag is yours for life. still suffers with her mental health today.
“After my operation I was addicted to all my pain meds and had to wean myself off them all.
“I feel like I was expected to just go back to being happy and how I was before my gallstones. It didn’t work like that – I was and still am depressed.
“It was hard to get myself off all the medication.
“I’m finally starting to feel more myself but still find it hard some days. I’m just grateful for everyone who donated so I can actually be a good mum to my son. I don’t think I’ll ever trust the NHS again. Some people think it’s just gallstones, but for me it completely changed my life and now I’m working on getting my life back.”
Storm said not knowing when she would be seen due to backlogs in the health service was “really hard”.
“I would go into A&E crying and unable to walk with the pain I was in, for them to just send me on my way because it wasn’t infected.
“It was hard mentally not knowing when this pain would end – I understand because of the pandemic everything was taking longer, but to leave someone in so much pain that it ruins their life mentally and physically? It’s disgusting.
“My heart goes out to anyone that’s in the position that I was in. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
“About two months before I had my operation my husband’s friend’s wife went in hospital with gallstones in Bristol. She had them removed straightaway.”
A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to our NHS services.
“We have continued to provide care as normal to patients who need urgent treatments (through A&E, cancer services etc) although many routine appointments and treatments have been postponed.
“We are continuing services wherever possible, with the most urgent cases being prioritised, and patients will be contacted directly to arrange their treatment and care.
“We are aware that many people have had their treatment delayed, which has caused them stress and discomfort, and we would like to reassure them that our staff are working hard to restore services as quickly and safely as possible.
“If anyone has any concerns about their care, we would urge them to contact their GP or their consultant team.”
■ For confidential support the Samaritans can be contacted for free around the clock 365 days a year on 116 123.