Masked thugs petrol-bombed former girlfriend's car on Wakefield driveway to impress love rival

Lyndon Turner employed the help of his pal Lee Hayes to torch the Vauxhall Astra in Wakefield. They were both wearing dark clothing, with hoods up and had their faces covered at the time.

The fire spread to the woman’s mother’s car and caused heat damage to the property, where the woman and her family were.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Turner had been in a relationship with the woman briefly in 2019 but it soured by the spring of 2020. He threatened her by saying he would send someone to “put her windows through and kill her”.

Turner was involved with another woman, but that when ended in the autumn of 2020, he felt the previous girlfriend was “somehow responsible for ending that relationship”, prosecutor Deborah Smithies told the court.

On the evening of October 8, 2020, at around 10.30pm, he and Hayes went to the house in the Wrenthorpe area. They smashed a window and threw in the petrol bomb before running off. The car set alight immediately and spread to the Nissan Qashqai parked next to it.

The horrified family saw what has happening and escaped the house and into the back garden, having dialled 999. The fire service extinguished the flames. The total cost of the damage, including heat damage to the house, came to more than £21,000.

Miss Smithies told the court: “The house could have caught fire with the family inside.”

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Turner, of Riverside Villas, Wakefield, was arrested the next day and gloves were found to contain petrol residue and had clear heat damage. He gave a no-comment interview but denied making threats to the victim.

But having been released, he then rang the second woman and admitted what he did with Hayes and asked if she would get back with him. Meanwhile, Hayes, of Victoria Avenue, Wakefield, sent a message to another friend confessing to what they had done, who turned him over to the police.

Both, who are now 25, were charged and denied the offending, but admitted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered on the day they were due to stand trial. Turner also admitted dangerous driving in Ossett after he took off from police on March 25, while driving an Audi Q5.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said the fire had a “massive effect” on her, had struggled to sleep and she and her family remain fearful.

Mitigating for Turner, Benjamin Bell said he was remorseful, was working and had a mortgage. For Hayes, Jessica Randell said that he admitted his behaviour was “unacceptable, dangerous, and deeply stupid”. However, she said he was not the “instigator or the ringleader” that night.

Judge Richard Mansell KC said the offences were far too serious for anything else other than a custodial sentence. He jailed Hayes for 32 months and Turner for 42 months. Turner was also banned from driving for 33 months.