A SPURNED husband cheated death after blowing up his house days after splitting from his wife.

Sean Cavens set gas leaking into his house before hiding under an upturned settee and lighting a match.

The 27-year-old's mental health was "fragile" after breaking up from his wife and he had decided to "end it all."

Cavens took an overdose in the days after the split before embarking on his plan to blow himself up.

Neighbours described the house in Twentieth Avenue, Blyth, Northumberland, exploding in a "fireball" and leaving the house and an adjoining house destroyed after the blast at 6pm.

The two houses had to be razed to the ground after the blast.

The dad-of-one spent months in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital with 40 per cent burns after the blast on April 16 last year.

At Newcastle Crown Court today Cavens was spared jail and given a two year community order with supervision requirements and ordered him to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing of destroying property being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Prosecuter Robert Woodcock told the court a neighbour, "Smelt the distinct smell of gas but thought nothing of it".

"What next she saw was a fireball blasting across the street from the front room.

"The house had been totally destroyed.

"The defendant had disconnected the inlet pipe to his gas meter thus allowing gas to escape.

"He then went into his own front room, turned upside down a settee, underneath which he hid.

"He then lit eiither a match or lighter with the deliberate intent of causing the explosion that resulted."

Mr Woodock said the settee had spared Cavens from "almost certain death."

Cavens, a postman, now of Burnside, Bedlington, was pulled from the rubble by a passerby and rushed to hospital.

The extent of his injuries meant he wasn't questioned by police until October 31 last year.

Mr Woodock said in the days before the explosion friends and relatives had become concerned about his willingness to accpet the breakdown of his marriage.

John Wilkinson, mitigating, said: "The only person who has suffered, and suffered significantly, is this defendant, at least physically."

Sentencing, Judge David Hodson said Cavens would normally be facing a jail sentence were it not for his "extremely fragile mental health condition" in the days leading up to the blast.

He said: "What seems to have happened is you decided to end it all the way you did by letting the gas in and lighting a match.

"Somehow you got yourself under the sofa and that protected you when the house blew up.

"It must have been a horrendous shock for those in the vicinity.

"Two houses had to be razed to the ground - that cost a vast amount of money and you are responsible."