AN arsonist who started a fire in his bedroom at a multi-occupancy Carlisle house as a family slept has been jailed for more than three years.
Andrzej Jasinski, 34, had got into rent arrears and was poised to be evicted from the Brunton Avenue property when he began a blaze in the early hours of April 5 this year.
Six other people, including five members of the same Romanian family, were asleep at the time. One told police how he woke and heard his cousin shout the word “smoke”, before looking outside to see Polish national Jasinski – who he’d earlier noted to be “intoxicated” – on the other side of the street running away.
It emerged Jasinski had spent 90 minutes ripping up wooden floorboards in his bedroom before setting a fire which two people then desperately tried to extinguish by stamping on it.
There were no injuries, and damage to the landlord was limited.
But as Jasinski admitted a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, and was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court this morning (WED), Judge James Adkin told him: “The risk to life was intense.”
Jailing Jasinski for 40 months, Judge Adkin said: “The aggravating features of the case are that there was a motive of revenge – you were in the process of being evicted; the other occupants became so frightened that they moved out; there is some suggestion you were in a measure of intoxication.”
