A MAN was jailed for three years yesterday after setting fire to his ex-girlfriend's house while she was in bed.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Karl Cirulis, of Staindale Gardens, Stockton, poured flammable liquid through Margaret Sheehan's letterbox and set it alight on January 21 last year.

He was later found by police at his home hiding in a cupboard with some paint stripper and a rolled up tissue doused in turpentine.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said Miss Sheehan, who lives opposite Cirulis, woke at 6am to find smoke coming from downstairs.

Her partner, Peter Hollifield, who was there at the time, phoned the emergency services and the fire brigade attended to put out the blaze.

Mr Dodds said Cirulis, 37, who admitted arson, had been outside the property earlier in the night shouting and swearing at the couple.

Peter Makepeace, mitigating, said his client had no recollection of the offence because he was drunk.