Arsonist who threatened police with hammer jailed
WATCH: Arsonist armed with hammer gets tasered outside smoking property
An arsonist who threatened police with a hammer outside a building he'd set on fire has been jailed for four years.
It happened in the earlier hours of Sunday 25th April 2021. Daniel Rutter set fire to the ground floor of an Edenbridge home following a dispute with a woman known to him.
They had an ongoing issue the day before, he then came to the property and set the curtains alight with a cigarette lighter.
Footage shows police arriving at the scene, finding Rutter armed with a hammer. He is repeatedly told by police officers to drop it. Footage then shows him lunge towards one officer where he is then tasered and detained.
The 48-year-old, of Wellingtonia Way, Edenbridge, admitted arson, two counts of criminal damage and three counts of common assault against an emergency services worker.
The fire caused around £30,000 worth of damage and later two hamsters were found dead inside.
He was sentenced to four years in prison at the Nightingale Court in Maidstone on Friday 2nd July 2021.
He was also recalled to prison to serve a discretionary life sentence, imposed in 2000, for a serious assault committed outside of Kent. At the time he was sentenced to a minimum of seven years, with a life licence also imposed.