Eight led to safety as whisky-fuelled fire-starter launches determined attack
Eight people had to be led to safety after an arsonist who had “drunk too much whisky” made a “determined attempt” to set fire to a house as mean-minded revenge against his girlfriend after a nasty assault on her. Drunken Stefan Grecu could easily have put the lives of other residents and neighbours at serious risk by starting a fire at the house and it was only by pure luck that they escaped unhurt, Hull Crown Court[1] heard. Grecu, 23, of Spring Bank, Hull, admitted arson, being reckless as to whether the lives of others were endangered, and assaulting his girlfriend on May 8.
He had been cleared by a jury at Grimsby Crown Court of arson with intent to endanger the lives of others. Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting, said that Grecu went to his girlfriend’s home in Harley Street, Hull[2] – a mid-terraced house where at least eight people lived. He repeatedly grabbed the woman by her hair in the front yard and he continued to drag her about by her hair and pulled her to the ground.
“He then seems to hold her down on the floor,” said Miss Stuart-Lofthouse. “She is struggling to get him off her. The assault stops and she manages to get back into the property. “The defendant can be seen to linger outside the property and he is repeatedly banging on the door trying to make efforts to encourage her to come back outside.
“He can be seen to light a cigarette and then appears to kick the front door of the property. He again walks away for a time before then taking a further running kick at the door.” Grecu, who is Romanian, was stumbling around, either through drink or drugs, and took rubbish out of a wheelie bin at the front of the house and moved it to near the front wheel of a bicycle propped up over a metal fence.
Moments later, he dragged another wheelie bin towards the door and set that alight. “He then drags a mattress from nearby and places it towards the burning rubbish by the bike,” said Miss Stuart-Lofthouse.
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Read our privacy notice here[4]. “The burning rubbish and the mattress are across the front yard. The whole incident lasts for about 25 minutes.
The fire brigade were called and attended quite promptly.” During police interview, Grecu claimed that he struggled to remember what happened that evening because he had drunk too much whisky. He admitted his actions and was very apologetic.
Philip Hasler, mitigating, said the risk posed by fires was always difficult to quantify. The only damage caused was to a fire-resistant door. Grecu originally admitted arson with intent to endanger life but, after a change of solicitors, an attempt was made to have that charge dismissed but this was refused.
He had no previous convictions. Recorder Taryn Turner said that Grecu made a “determined attack on the property” but nobody was physically harmed and the damage caused was low. “Eight people were led to safety from that property, which followed your fire-setting in the outside front yard,” said Recorder Turner. “It highlighted the inherent dangerousness of what you did and what the consequences could have been, flowing from your reckless behaviour. “It was quite a lengthy incident of 25 minutes, during which you persisted in trying to set a fire.
There needs to be an immediately effective custodial sentence. “This was a determined effort to set a fire in circumstances where it was plainly obvious that a risk arose not just to the householders within that Harley Street property but to neighbouring properties as well. “A number of people’s lives were endangered in consequence of that.
My advice to you is to stay away from too much whisky drinking and Harley Street but that’s a matter, of course, for you.”
Grecu was jailed for 18 months but, because he had been in custody since May, he was expected to be released shortly.