Swansea man set fire to hotel room he lived in and barricaded door

A man barricaded himself into the hotel room he was living in and started a fire, a court has heard.

Michael O'Brien, 48, now of no fixed abode, later said he started the blaze at The Alexander hotel in Swansea as it was the only way to alert people to men "causing trouble" outside his room after police seized his mobile phone the previous day.

Prosecutors said other residents at the hotel became aware of smoke coming under the door to O'Brien's room in February this year.

Swansea Crown Court heard knocks on the door went unanswered and when people tried to force their way into the room they found O'Brien had barricaded the door.

Prosecutor Robin Roach added a number of residents forced their way into the burning room as they waited for emergency services to arrive and found it was full of "very thick smoke."

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O'Brien was arrested at the scene and subsequently gave police a prepared statement.

In the statement, he said police had taken his phone and the fire was his only way to draw attention to people outside his room.

Police examined CCTV footage from the hotel as part of their investigation and found no group of people outside O'Brien's room, according to the prosecutor.

O'Brien previously pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

Defending O'Brien, Steve Burnell said it was his understanding police had arrested his client and removed his phone the day before the fire after the defendant made between 30 and 40 calls to the police.

Judge Wayne Beard said pre-sentence and psychiatric reports on the defendant suggested he seemed to have been experiencing paranoid-type thoughts, although there was no psychiatric illness needing hospital treatment.

With a one-third discount for his guilty plea, O'Brien was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

The defendant will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

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