Affair drove husband to start fire in home

A wheelchair-bound man has been jailed for three years for setting alight his wife's Black Country flat after she told him she was having an affair with his friend.

Tina Pardoe told husband Raymond on New Year's Eve their 26 year marriage was over and she was leaving him for his friend John Holmes.

Pardoe, of Sandy Lane, Stourport, responded by sprinkling petrol around the front door of her flat in Toys Road, Cradley and setting fire to the home.

The heartbroken 67-year-old admitted arson with intent to endanger life.

Miss Samantha Powis, defending, told Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday Pardoe, a father-of-two, felt "doubly betrayed."

Miss Powis said the news his wife had been having an affair for many months led the defendant to set fire to the flat in "a very stressful set of circumstances."

Judge Amjad Nawaz told him the news his wife gave him must "have come like a bolt out of the blue."

"It quite clearly pushed you over the edge because she no longer wanted to be with you and she was leaving you for a man who was a good friend of yours," he said.

Judge Nawaz said Pardoe had gone to the flat in the hope of persuading his wife to come back.

He added: "I am sure it was not in your mind at that stage to cause any harm."

But, after a scuffle with Mr Holmes, Pardoe had sprinkled petrol around the front door of the flat which was on the middle floor of a two storey block and started the fire.

Judge Nawaz added the "frightening" aspect of the case was that the door was the only means of entry and exit to the flat.

He told Pardoe: "I am sure at this stage you knew what you were doing and that the consequences could have been immense danger."

Mr Holmes was able to put out the fire.

By Ben Lammas