Caught on video: The moment a spurned lover tried to kill his ex in a house fire

The shocking footage shows Gary Griffiths filling a fuel can at a garage before driving to his victim's house and settling light to the door.

Griffiths, yesterday jailed for 16 years, poured almost six litres of fuel through the letter box and pushed a cigarette and lit paper in to the house, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

When that failed to spark a blaze, the drunk 44-year-old used a lighter to ignite more petrol splashed on the front door step of the terraced property in Bloxwich Road, Walsall.

Former girlfriend Tracey Powell, who works with Prince's Trust students at City Wolverhampton College, shouted for help from her first floor bedroom after being woken by a missed call from him.

She recalled: 'I asked him, 'what are you doing? He said, 'I told you not to upset me.' He then drove away, leaving her to her fate.

Griffiths had earlier warned in text messages he would burn down the house before launching the arson attack around 3am on March 4 – one declared: 'S**t happens when you upset me, ha ha.'

Luckily the UPVC front door was badly scorched but did not catch light.

Fire crews who rescued Miss Powell warned there could have been a 'conflagration' if fuel fumes had exploded into a fireball in the hall which was packed with boxes of possessions after she moved in just three days earlier.

A CCTV camera at a nearby shop showed Griffiths – who had a previous conviction for threatening to kill social workers – spending one minute 42 seconds painstakingly pouring petrol through the letter box.

He bought a can full of 5.86 litres of fuel from the Jet Service Station on Lichfield Road, Shelfield, half an hour before launching the potentially deadly attack and Judge Robin Onions observed yesterday: "This was a chillingly determined attempt to burn the woman's house down."

Miss Powell, who left the address after her brush with death, revealed in a victim impact statement: "I have been overwhelmed with anxiety and nerves since this happened.

"I am struggling to sleep and have dreams about him.

"I am very frightened of Gary and am concerned he won't stop this pursuit of me. I don't know his limits. If he can't get to me he might hurt my mum."

Griffiths, of Proffitt Close, Brownhills, who struck after an attempt to win back Miss Powell with a bunch of flowers he delivered to her at work, had been convicted of attempted murder by a jury after an earlier trial.

He had denied the offence but admitted arson.

He was jailed by Judge Onions who told him: "If there had been an explosion of petrol vapour and fumes and the house had gone up, the means of escape of Miss Powell would have been cut off because the stairs were very close to the front door. She would not have got out."

Griffiths had been jilted in February following a two month romance with Miss Powell and the judge continued: "You spent a considerable amount of time after she ended the relationship brooding over what had happened. This was a planned attempt to kill.

"You had no regard for the safety of those who could have been affected, including neighbours and fire fighters.

"Having set the fire you left Miss Powell to her fate."

Det Con Dave Franks, who investigated the case, said: "It was an abhorrent crime, aspects of which were certainly chilling.

"It is difficult to comprehend what goes through the mind of somebody who can do something like this." Stephen Davies, Acting Sector Crown Prosecutor from West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Unable to accept the fact that the victim did not wish to rekindle their relationship, Gary Griffiths sought revenge on his ex-partner and planned to burn down her house while she was asleep in it.

"Once he had set fire to the house, rather than call for help, Griffiths watched from across the road as the flames took hold of the downstairs of the house and then left the scene of his crime knowing that the victim was trapped upstairs.

"Through his reckless actions, he not only put the victim's life in danger, but that of the neighbours and the emergency services who were called out to tackle the blaze."