Man Jailed for Four Years After Deliberately Starting Fire

A man who deliberately started a fire and was seen taking selfies and laughing as firefighters worked to extinguish it has been sentenced to four years in prison. Freddie Pritchard, 29, ignited a cigarette on his bed, along with aerosol canisters and vapes, before leaving the room at the property on Main Street, Ayr. The incident led to the evacuation of three other flats and a commercial unit located below, with South Ayrshire Council estimating the damage caused by the fire to be between £25,000 and £30,000. Pritchard initially claimed the fire was caused by a faulty phone charger, but he pleaded guilty to wilful fire-raising earlier this year. A team of 10 firefighters spent two hours extinguishing the blaze, which began on 27 May this year. The court heard that while firefighters were tackling the blaze, Pritchard behaved in a “light-hearted manner.” Prosecutor Brian Gill KC informed the court: “He was taking selfies and photos of the fire engines” and “He was phoning friends as well as laughing and joking.” Pritchard, a convicted sex offender, had been living in the council-provided flat on Ayr Main Street since his release from prison on 1 March. It was also revealed in court that he made no attempts to inform other residents about the fire. A neighbour reported hearing an alarm in Pritchard’s home before noticing flames and a large plume of black smoke entering his own flat. The neighbour described being in a “panic” and feared he would not be able to get his pet cats out in time. Firefighters subsequently arrived and assisted the man and his pets in safely exiting the smoke-filled building. No one sustained injuries during the fire. Pritchard’s initial statement claimed he had returned home from the hospital and his phone charger had caught fire. However, an investigation later concluded that the fire had been started deliberately. In the days that followed, Pritchard told witnesses that he had used a cigarette to start the blaze but had “not expected it to take hold the way it had.” He asserted that his aim was either to return home to live with his parents or to be charged. Pritchard, who has a conviction for a similar offence dating back to 2014, pleaded guilty to wilful fire-raising when he appeared at the High Court in Glasgow earlier this year, where he was remanded in custody. During his sentencing, defence advocate Lorenzo Alonzi informed judge Lord Young that his client had a history of mental health problems. He stated that Pritchard had a learning disability, had been diagnosed with ADHD, and was under the care of a psychologist. Mr Alonzi commented: “He is not, in my submission, a bad person. He is failing to cope.” Passing sentence at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Young characterized Pritchard as an “immature” and “reckless” man, stating that a substantial custodial sentence was “inevitable.” Lord Young also told Pritchard that if he had not pleaded guilty, he would have received a prison term of six years.