Arsonist jailed after causing £10,000 damage

A man who caused £10,000 of damage to a house in Belfast after he set fire to it has been jailed for five years.

Kenneth McBride of Castlereagh tried to burn down a house occupied by seven Polish people because they did not show him “respect”.

Belfast Crown Court heard McBride began banging on the doors of the house following an exchange with one of the seven residents.

The man told police, when he was arrested that he had “lived on the road for 22 years and that he demanded some respect.”

It is also understood he went to a filling station, where he bought a container and petrol which he poured around the front step and on the gable wall of the house before setting them on fire.

McBride was arrested nearby, apparently “smelling strongly of petrol” and made racist remarks about the Polish residents.

Reports on him, however, said he had no “racist tendencies or underlying problems”.

The Polish occupants all managed to escape through a rear window on to a back roof and four were treated for smoke inhalation.

(JM)