Drunken Stockton women who torched man's flat destroying everything he owned are jailed

Kirsty Scott and Natasha Davis broke into the ground floor flat when the owner was out visiting a friend and they set fire to his bed

Two drunken women who torched a man’s flat destroying everything he owned were jailed yesterday.

Kirsty Scott, 24, and Natasha Davis, 20, broke into the Stockton ground floor flat when he was out visiting a friend and they set fire to his bed.

But they instantly regretted it and asked a passer-by to call the fire brigade, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Davis’s lawyer Alex Bousfield told the judge: “She understands that the man lost everything he had in the world in that fire.

“Other people lived nearby, and she very much regrets her involvement in it.”

The value of his property which was all destroyed was just £1,500 and the damage to the building in Cromwell Avenue, central Stockton, was £3,800.

The women were standing in the street nearby when the man returned to the blazing scene at 6pm January 3 last year after he was alerted by a friend.

Prosecutor Rachel Masters said that he asked them if they knew who had been involved in starting it and they said that they did not.

She said that he knew both of them because he had been in a six month relationship with Scott which ended.

Duncan McReddie, defending Scott, said that her story was that the man had made unwelcome approaches to her.

He added: “They were both very drunk.

“She has had a problem with drink and drunken behaviour since she was a child.

“But since she has been remanded in custody she has been undergoing counselling and education, and she approaches these matters with a clear head.

“She is determined to use the inevitable term of imprisonment and to undertake counselling and training for the future.”

The judge told the women that it was a very dangerous and wicked act.

Judge Advocate Paul Camp said: “You were both well and truly drunk and you were not really in your right mind when you did it.

“I suspect you were beginning to realise the seriousness of what you had done at an early stage and you wanted to do something about it.

“This is a very serious offence which requires a substantial immediate custodial sentence”

Scott, of Melville Walk, Tilery, Stockton, was jailed for 40 months and Davis of Zetland Road, Stockton, was sentenced to 30 months custody after they pleaded guilty to arson being reckless whether lives were endangered