A Bolton man who set fire to his bed said that he did it because he heard voices calling him a ‘nonce’. Declan Waring passed out after starting the blaze in the early hours of the morning and later woke up struggling to breathe, before escaping through the window of his ground floor flat.
A woman living in the same building, in Crossland Road, Breightmet, had been woken up by Waring outside at around 2am on June 15. He was shouting various things, including “don’t call me a nonce or I’ll stab you,” prosecution barrister Niamh Ingham told Bolton Crown Court.
After going back to sleep, the woman was alerted to the fire by her smoke alarm and was evacuated. An ambulance was called for Waring and he was taken to hospital to be assessed. Ms Ingham told the court that the fire was contained within Waring’s flat and no one was seriously injured.
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Waring, who has borderline personality disorder, told police that he had barricaded himself in his bedroom by pushing his bed against the door, after hearing ‘two men’ and ‘voices’ calling him a ‘nonce’. He admitted that he set the bed on fire in a bid to try and get rid of them and also told officers that he did not know if the men were real.
Waring, 26, pleaded guilty to arson - being reckless as to whether life is endangered. The court heard that he has a number of previous convictions, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2019 and criminal damage.
Defending, Martin Pizzey told the court that Waring “accepts responsibility”. Mr Pizzey said: “This is a young man who has been challenged throughout his life… some of his own decisions in life, perhaps conditioned by what he went through as a child, have not been the most positive.”
He also made reference to the pre-sentence report, which disclosed that Waring’s childhood was “plagued” by his mother’s drug addiction and stated that he is addicted to amphetamines. In mitigation, Mr Pizzey told the hearing that Waring has a “supportive” partner, which he described as being a “great benefit”.
Judge Tom Gilbart sentenced Waring to 16 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. He also made Waring subject to a 12-month mental health treatment requirement.
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