Moston man jailed for arson attack on Rochdale house with children inside

A man from Moston has been jailed after setting fire to the front and back exit of a house in Rochdale, where a baby and young children were sleeping upstairs.

Paul Lamb, 28, was seen hours before buying a water bottle and filling it up with petrol at a Texaco garage.

He then set fire to the front door of a home in Rochdale through the letterbox and lit a fire in a wheelie bin at the backdoor, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

The homeowner a dad-of-three, Habib Urrehman, woke at 4am because of the noise of an explosion and managed to extinguish the flames before there was any more damage.

When the police asked who he thought could have caused the fire, he said that an argument had taken place between his wife’s sister and her husband, Lamb’s brother, earlier in the year.

During that argument he had threatened: “I’ll put a fire on you and burn you”, it was said.

Lamb, pleaded guilty to arson and being reckless as to whether life was endangered, he was jailed for six years.

In a victim personal statement, Mr Urrehman was described to have expressed his fears over what could have happened to his wife and children had he not been present at the time.Lamb was said to have 13 previous convictions for 28 offences, including eight offences of criminal damage and offences of assaulting a police officer.

Mitigating, Michael Lavery said: “It’s very sad this defendant faces a significant sentence for an argument not of his making.“He spiralled, drinking and taking drugs, and became very confused and was coerced by his brother to commit this offence”.He said his client had ‘great empathy and understanding’ and that he suffers from mental health issues.