A MAN admitted having drunk “a skinful” before setting light to a car parked outside the home of a woman with whom he had once had a brief relationship, a court heard.

Gary Johnson is believed to have used some form of accelerant to start the fire in the wheel arch of the Vauxhall Astra, in the early hours of July 9 last year.

But Durham Crown Court heard that as the car was only about a metre from the living room of the terraced property, in Seventh Avenue, Chester-le-Street, the flames spread to the front of the house and to another parked vehicle.

Robin Patton, prosecuting, said a former partner of the woman living at the house, who was exercising his right to visit to see his son, was awoken by his car alarm sounding as he slept on the settee in the living room.

On seeing his car ablaze he picked up his son to carry him from the house and shouted upstairs to alert his former partner.

Both cars were damaged, as was the front of the house and a neighbouring property, costing the housing association owners £1,400 to repair.

Mr Patton said a fire officer who examined the scene said thick fumes and toxic smoke would have emitted from the blazing car, and would soon have seeped into the house, had the alarm not been raised so soon, ensuring firefighters arrived within seven minutes.

Closed circuit tv from a nearby house revealed a figure, identified as the defendant, cycling up and down Seventh Avenue, shortly before the blaze was reported.

Johnson was arrested later that day and said he had drunk, “a skinful” the previous evening, and was looking for somewhere to stay.

He said he rode up and down to see if the lights were on in the house of the woman with whom he previously had a brief relationship, although he initially denied starting the fire.

Mr Patton said it is believed Johnson had, “some feelings of animosity”, on seeing the car of another of the woman’s former partners, parked outside her home.

Twenty-nine-year-old Johnson, of Hollyhill Gardens West, in Stanley, admitted arson being reckless to whether life was endangered, on the day his trial was to have begun.

Peter Schofield, mitigating, said the defendant, of previous good character, was, “at an all-time low in terms of his personal background”, at the time of the incident.

“Unfortunately, he resorted to a period of almost being homeless and relied on the goodwill of friends.”

Mr Schofield added that Johnson was using “various substances” and drinking heavily at the time.

Jailing him for six years, Judge Simon Hickey said Johnson appeared to have, “no deviant interest if fire-raising”.

But he added that the aggravating features of the incident were that it seemed to have been pre-meditated, while Johnson appeared to have made no attempt to raise the alarm.