A firebug who forced a woman to flee her home after torching her BMW car has been jailed for 30 months. Liam Bradburn, 28, poured petrol on the motor belonging to Angela Moffat and set it on fire.
A neighbour saw Bradburn set the BMW X1 alight and phoned Moffat to tell her to get out of her property in Stonehouse, Lanarkshire. Moffat, 42, battled through flames and smoke as she fled before she was pulled over a fence to safety in August 2020.
A neighbour identified him to police and he was arrested. Bradburn, of Netherburn, Lanarkshire, denied all wrongdoing and went on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
But jurors took two hours to find him guilty of wilful fireraising to the danger of life as well as acting in a threatening or abusive manner. Sheriff Thomas Millar said there was no alternative to a prison sentence.
Giving evidence from behind screes to depute fiscal Aga Mathieson, Moffat told the court how she ran from the property in August 2020. She said: "I was lying in my bed in a deep sleep and I got phoned by my neighbour and she said to me, 'get out the house, your car is on fire', and I jumped straight up.
"The flames were coming through my front door and I tried to make my way down to the living room but by the time I got in there, the full window was pure red flames.
"I headed out the back door and my pregnant neighbour helped me over the back fence which was a struggle for her. The full street by that time was out and I just hit the deck, I was in shock."
Moffat told the trial Bradburn had earlier threatened to 'do damage' to the motor before he was spotted setting it alight. Moffat added: "After he had been at my door, there was nobody else I suspected other than Liam Bradburn because nobody else had threatened me and I didn't have a problem with anyone else."
In evidence Bradburn denied starting the fire and claimed to have no issue with Moffat. He said: "I didn't start that fire, this is all completely untrue."
Kevin Corr, defending, said: "There is a record here but there is nothing which comes close to the gravity of the charge which he has been convicted of by the jury. He is very realistic over how this matter will be dealt with."
Sheriff Millar said: "The charge is so serious that a custodial sentence is inevitable."
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