Man who set fire to his home after drinking up to two litres of vodka is jailed for risking his neighbours' lives

A MAN who set fire to a block of flats after assaulting his former best friend told his victim: ‘We could all die today.’
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Portsmouth Crown Court heard David Oliver had been arrested for assaulting his ground floor neighbour Alan Reed in Lennox Road, Chichester, on August 3 last year.

The pair had been friends for years, tending a garden and sharing cups of tea together, but fell out over Mr Reed’s cats, the court heard.

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Alcoholic Oliver, 60, was on bail from magistrates’ court and warned not to contact his neighbour before returning to court in September.

Portsmouth Crown Court. Picture: César Moreno HuertaPortsmouth Crown Court. Picture: César Moreno Huerta
Portsmouth Crown Court. Picture: César Moreno Huerta
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But Oliver, who had drunk around 1.5 to 2 litres of vodka that day, hung around his neighbour’s garage on August 15 making ‘macabre’ comments about dying with honour – before grabbing his arm and telling him: ‘Do you think about dying?’

Just as the neighbour, a craftsman, called police about Oliver breaching his bail, he heard the fire alarm sounding. The court heard Oliver had set a fire in his lounge in a suicide bid.

Residents started to flee but Oliver stayed inside and said ‘I’m going to end it’ and added: ‘I’ve had enough I just want to die.’

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Jailing Oliver for three and a half years, judge William Ashworth hailed the ‘bravery’ of Mr Reed who hammered the front door with a sledgehammer and axe trying to rescue him.

A woman, Victoria Fooks, was commended for her actions in saving Oliver who with others ‘put themselves at considerable risk to rescue you’.

Judge Ashworth said: ‘It’s very hard to see anything other than utter selflessness in the actions of Mr Reed and Miss Fooks.’

Reading a victim statement, prosecutor Jodie Mittell said the neighbour also suffered ‘trauma’ from trying to extricate Mr Oliver from the burning building’ and suffers nightmares of his own home on fire.

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The court heard Oliver, who has a personality disorder, set the fire in the lounge, with rubbish on the floor. Fire damaged the lounge and sofas, with smoke damage in the bedroom and hallway.

Oliver had ‘written notes on the inside of the door (that) indicated some level of distress’ about being given notice to leave his flat. He also suffered an injury to his left leg in the fire.

Pierce Power, defending, said: ‘This was a serious offence and he caused real danger to those who tried to help him that afternoon and others in the block.

‘But sad indeed from any objective view, sad that, certainly on his case, he decided to take his own life.’

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Just a day before the fire Oliver had been ordered out of his long-standing housing association home.

Jurors convicted Oliver of arson reckless as to whether life endangered and assault by beating at a trial on January 10. He was cleared of intending to put life in danger in the fire at 3.41pm last year.

A restraining order imposed banning Oliver from going to Lennox Road for five years or contacting Mr Reed or Miss Fooks was met with whispered ‘thanks’ from the public gallery.