JAILED: Man set fire to house while his partner and baby daughter slept

Sean Morley, who started three separate fires at the property while they slept, has been jailed for five years.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard this week how the mother and child were woken by 21-year-old Morley as the semi-detached house in Elm Terrace, Tividale, filled with smoke.

Mr Andrew Wilkins, prosecuting, said the mum decided to stay in the bedroom after the fire service had been called due to the danger of taking their baby down the stairs and into more of the smoke.

A fire had been lit in a wheelie bin by the front door, while two more had been started on a table and in a sack of clothing in the garage that was being used for storage, the court was told.

Nobody was hurt in the incident but it did cause £13,000 damage to the address at around 4am on September 10 last year.

Morley was also linked to seven previous fires which he denied responsibility for and had not been prosecuted over, disclosed Mr Wilkins.

They started in 2007 when he was excluded from school after a coat caught light, the court was told.

There were three further fires in properties were he was living at the time, a shed in the garden of one of the properties, his grandmother's home while he was present and a pub toilet shortly after he left, continued Mr Wilkins.

Mr Tom Walking, defending, claimed that there was a genuine accidental cause to two of these and warned: "There is a real danger in using this kind of evidence that is both untested and untried when deciding on the length of the appropriate sentence.

"He has lost everything and is genuinely sorry. He has lost his partner and lost contact with his daughter.

"A psychiatrist has been unable to draw any conclusion as to the potential risk of dangerousness and if he is unable to make a finding, then the defendant should be given the benefit of the doubt."

Morley, now of St Giles Avenue, Rowley Regis, pleaded guilty to arson while reckless as to whether life was endangered and was jailed for five years by Judge Martin Walsh.

The judge told him: "The difficulty in sentencing arises from the suggestion that you have been linked to fire setting in the past, something you deny. I cannot be satisfied that the dangerousness criteria are established in this case but in this case you set three seats of fire and then retreated to the bedroom to wake up your partner and young child. There was a very real possibility of serious harm or worse being caused to a member of the public or fire service and I am concerned that there is no psychiatric explanation for your actions."