A MAN with a personality disorder who set fire to his home in a "cack-handed" attempt at suicide has been spared jail.

Craig McConville was told that a two-year community rehabilitation order would be more useful than prison to both him and the community.

McConville, 33, set fire to curtains and furniture at his home in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, when the prospect of a court case he was facing became too much to bear.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday that the father-of-three had been falsely accused of assault and feared he would be jailed if found guilty.

On December 30 last year, McConville barricaded himself inside a three-bedroomed house in Lorraine Walk and set fire to the curtains in the hope that the smoke would suffocate him.

Graeme Haston, prosecuting, said police were called by a concerned neighbour and smashed their way into the house and put out the blaze.

Robin Turton, defending, told the court: "The reasons he committed the offence are, in themselves, quite exceptional.

"This is not a fire-starter. He was trying to take his own life in a rather cack-handed and rather melodramatic way."

McConville's wife, Stacy, told the court that her husband's personality disorder meant he often tried to hurt himself when he could not cope with problems.

Mrs McConville said a custodial sentence would crush her husband and would have a painful effect on his family and children.

Judge Peter Armstrong warned McConville, who admitted arson, to get expert help when his problems become too much.