A mother and son burned down her former lover’s canal barge in a “despicable” revenge attack, after she claimed he had cheated on her during their twenty years together.
Jackie Lloyd, 54, and her son Adam, 36, “danced and laughed” as they watched Peter Hill’s boat go up in flames in the Canal Reach area of Runcorn, Cheshire, from the bank of the Bridgewater Canal.
Mr Hill had been away visiting friends at the time and the pair, who had been drinking heavily, bragged in videos they recorded of the revenge attack.
The mother and son have both been jailed for the cruel attack, which took place on September 7 last year, all because she claimed Mr Hill had cheated on her during their 20 years together.
In the videos, Jackie could heard saying: "You dirty f***ing t*t, sh***ing behind my back", following which Adam said: "That's my mother dude".
In the same video Adam could be seen, holding a lighter under a cushion waiting for it to let set light saying: "Firebug, bro".
On the other videos, the mother and son can be seen celebrating as the flames engulf the interior of the barge.
They could be heard chanting "Oh yes, the room, the room, the room is on fire ".
Jackie later said: "999 hurry up" and "Come on you f***ing d***head" whilst at the very end of the clips, Adam could be heard saying "Oh, we are in sh**."
The fire completely destroyed the £45,000 boat and Mr Hill, who is in his late 60s, lost all his possessions in the blaze and was not covered by insurance.
At Chester Crown Court, the Lloyds, who live in Frodsham, Cheshire were each jailed for 40 months after both admitted arson.
The attack took place after the mother and son met with Jackie’s former husband, Mark, about an upcoming funeral of an uncle.
They suspected Mr Hill had photos of him on his boat, so went to the barge, but Mark left shortly afterwards because he “did not want to get involved”.
Prosecutor Peter Hussey said: "Mr Hill's barge was effectively his home and he had spent some time and financial effort in renovating it.”
On that fateful day, he had left his barge behind and was driving to Lancashire when Jackie rang him repeatedly.
In the calls, the prosecution described her as angry, nasty and drunk and she asked about items of her property which she seemed to believe were on the barge.
The prosecution continued: "He told her that those items were with him in the car and told her not to go to the barge. But her response to that was to say that she was going anyway and threatened to set fire to the barge if he did not surrender those items.
"In the final call he could hear the sound of footsteps on metal which sounded exactly like the footsteps on the deck of the barge.”
At the canal, witnesses heard items being smashed up in the barge, and one pass-by remonstrated with them before receiving abuse and Jackie threatened to set fire to their house.
The witnesses saw Jackie throwing some items from the barge into the water as flames could be seen inside the boat.
As the defendants celebrated, the fire took hold and engulfed the barge, completely destroying it.
The pair walked away, but were later traced by police where Jackie said: “This is my barge. I admit it, I set it on fire,”
Adam initially said: “I will take the blame” before he claimed the fire started by accident when he dropped a lit cigarette.
Since the attack, Mr Hill said he had been left with nowhere permanently to stay, and suffered serious depression.
In mitigation for dad-of-one Adam, defence lawyer Peter Barnett said that efforts to get photos of the deceased uncle had “got well out of hand”.
Jackie's counsel Jeremy Rawson said the arson had been an “impromptu act” where the two had egged each other on more and more.
But sentencing Judge Steven Everett told Jackie: "You had been in a relationship with Peter Hill for 20 years. Whatever the reasons for your break-up does not matter but it is clear that you took it badly.
“Normal decent people accept that sometimes these things happen and walk away but you exactly the opposite. As seen on the video clips there was a real air of gloating which was equally despicable. It would be bad enough if it was the sort of barge used for occasional holidays or weekends travelling up and down the canals of the country.
"But this was Mr Hill's home and each of you knew it and each of you knew he would be in serious difficulties if he lost his home. But you gave no thought to that, when Adam was setting fire to the cushion and you were almost dancing with delight. The pair of you watching outside as his home went up in smoke whilst dancing and rejoicing was a terrible act.
"It was a nasty, mean and despicable act of revenge on a man who did not deserve it."
