Arsonist's sentence cut

A former railway worker who set fire to parts of the network in Staffordshire in a 17-month campaign of vandalism has had his 10-year jail sentence reduced.

Allan Nicol had his sentence cut by two-and-a-half years at London's Court of Appeal yesterday. Nicol, aged 48, and of Yardley, Birmingham, was found guilty of arson in January after setting fire to a trackside relay room in Rugeley in November 2005.

The father-of-six was cleared of endangering lives through criminal damage when he cut signalling cables at Kingsbury Junction, Warwickshire, in 2004.

But he had previously admitted 12 offences of causing criminal damage to tracks in the West Midlands between June 2004 and November 2005.

His dangerous actions involved cutting and setting fire to trackside cables, paralysing tracks in the region and so affecting other parts of the country.

The campaign cost Network Rail more than £4 million and caused almost 2,000 hours of delays, disrupting more than 200,000 passengers.

During his trial at Birmingham Crown Court, the jury heard that Nicol, who was made redundant in August 2005, acted as he did in response to what he perceived as ongoing problems at Network Rail.

It included conditions of work, the way staff were treated and the way mistakes were dealt with.

But Lord Justice Toulson said yesterday that Nicol, who was of previous good character, came across as an obsessive perfectionist who was subject to a great deal of work-related stress.

The judge said: "He felt a sense of responsibility for his men which collided with an increasing sense of impotence in relation to his concerns about safety standards which he perceived as inadequate."

The judge said Nicol regretted his actions and had no intention of repeating them, so a sentence of seven-and-a-half years was appropriate.