JEALOUS THUG SET FIRE TO PENSIONER’S FLAT IN CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
Court reporter A PENSIONER lost everything when a jealous thug set fire to her flat by mistake as he tried to target her upstairs neighbour.
Jilted Ashley Walker was attempting to torch the home of a man he wrongly believed his former partner was going out with.
Raging Walker had taken the end of his five-year relationship badly and began to cause trouble for his former partner and her family, a court heard.
The bitter arsonist wrongly became convinced she was in a relationship with a man she knew and set about taking brutal revenge.
In the early hours of the morning he torched his former partner’s car outside her home in Blyth, Northumberland, then went to set fire to the other man’s flat nearby.
But instead of getting his upstairs flat he got the home of the 71-year-old pensioner who lives downstairs, causing £40,000 of damage and causing her to lose everything as she had no insurance.
Now Walker and accomplice Graham Wills are behind bars after they were convicted of arson on the flat at Brockhall Court, Blyth, and damaging the ex’s car by fire.
In a statement read to the court, the pensioner said she had been out with her family then stayed up late that night watching Ice Cold Killers then Little House on the Prairie – her favourite programme – on TV.
Having dozed off in the early hours, she said: “I woke up with a sound as if someone was banging the back door.
“I thought there was a light on but when I went in the passage I could see a fire at my back door, the flames were half way up the door.
“I suddenly heard a loud whoosh sound and I went out of the front door and called the fire brigade and waited outside.
“I’ve since been back and found it had been destroyed with smoke damage and most of my belongings are ruined.
“I’ve not been able to return due to the extensive damage and I’ve been rehoused on a temporary basis at the moment, in an upstairs flat, which is not ideal.
“As a result of this, everything I own has been destroyed, including clothing, pictures and sentimental mementos.”
Jonathan Devlin, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court both fire attacks happened in the early hours of May 15 last year.
He said: “The first was a vehicle which was stationary on Twentieth Avenue outside her house.
“The second was the home of an elderly lady, set on fire in what the prosecution say was a case of mistaken identity.”
Mr Devlin said Walker’s ex had ended their relationship early last year.
He said: “He took that badly and began to cause trouble for her and her family.
“He made it clear to her by various communications that he was jealous of her having any contact or relationship with a man who she had met.
“She had made friends with him by May last year but had not entered into a relationship with him.
“He, to the misfortune of (the pensioner) lived in the flat above her.”
Around 3.30am on May 15 Walker’s ex woke to find her Vauxhall Corsa had gone up in flames outside her home.
Around the same time the pensioner discovered her flat was also on fire.
Mr Devlin said: “She was woken by a loud bang and left her bedroom to find her rear door was well alight.
“She was able to get out of her flat. She was not aware she had any problems with anybody, friends, neighbours or people she had known in the past. There appeared to be no reason her house should be targeted for an arson attack.”
CCTV from Brockwell Court shows a car arriving in the street and one of the men got out and went and set the fire and within seconds the flickering of flames could be seen reflected in the footage.
Mr Devlin said: “Unhappily he got the wrong address.”
The car used to travel to the scene of the arson – which prosecutors said belonged to Wills’ girlfriend, who was in Spain at the time – was later found burned out.
Mr Devlin said: “The prosecution say the case here is a strong one.
“It can’t be a coincidence that the two places where the arson attacks took place within minutes effect both Walker’s ex partner and the person he perceived to be having a relationship with her.
“Who else, say the prosecution would have grievances against both her and her perceived partner.”
The court heard there was £40,000 of damage to the council home of the pensioner and a further £6,000 of damage to the upstairs flat.
Walker’s ex told the court she had been out on the night of May 14 and when she came home around midnight and went to bed her car was intact outside. Around 3.30am she was woken by a car horn and looked out and saw her car in flames.
Walker, 29, of Aln Avenue, Gosforth, and Wills, 36, of Fourteenth Avenue, Blyth, were each convicted of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered and damaging the car by fire.