Jilted lover's jail plea for car torching

Gavin Rogerson, 21, of Brighton Road, Lancing, was jailed for five years in November, 2003, after pleading guilty to arson with reckless endangerment when he appeared at Chichester Crown Court.

The trial judge also imposed a four-year "extended sentence" '“ under which he would be sent back to prison for four years after release if he committed another crime.

Mr Justice Silber on Friday upheld the five-year custodial element of the sentence but halved the extended sentence to two years.

The judge '“ sitting with Mr Justice Simon '“ said Rogerson's crime was motivated by resentment at his former girlfriend, with whom he had begun a relationship when she was 16.

By October, 2002, she said she "wished to distance herself from him" but Rogerson could not accept this.

Rogerson initiated a campaign of harassment which culminated in a court restraining order imposed in May last year.

The arson offence was committed while Rogerson was subject to that order.

On the night of the offence, in April, 2003, he

forced a fellow pub-goer to drive him to his victim's home, where he set fire to a car parked in the driveway.

His ex-girlfriend's mother was woken around midnight by the blast of her car igniting, while the force of the fire was such that extensive damage was caused to the side of the house.

The mother, who was alone in the house at the time, had been badly affected by her ordeal, said the judge.

Probation and psychiatric reports concluded that Rogerson was not mentally ill, but had exhibited great immaturity and little insight into his offending.

A pre-sentence report said he posed a high risk of re-offending.