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Man who threatened to ‘f****** burn down’ own mum’s house jailed over arson attempt

Paul Higgins

Today at 14:56

A man who threatened his own mum “I’m going to f****** burn your house” before trying to shove lit material through her letter box was handed a 28 month sentence today.

Ordering Kevin Gerald Rodgers to serve ten months in jail and 18 months under supervised licence conditions, Judge Geoffrey Miller KC said the threats made by the 37-year-old had put his mother in fear which was compounded by his “repeated efforts to follow through on his threats.”

“The fear engendered was real and was made all the more painful to the victim because the defendant is her son,” said the Downpatrick Crown Court judge.

At an earlier hearing Rodgers, listed as no fixed address, Holywood, entered guilty pleas to two counts of threatening to damage property and one of arson being reckless whether life would be endangered on 26 July last year.

Summarising the case during his sentencing remarks today, Judge Miller recounted how the defendant’s mother contacted police around 3pm that day because Rodgers was outside her Spencer Street home, setting fire to pieces of paper and trying to push them through her letter box.

When police arrived an “intoxicated” Rodgers was still there with a “lighter in one hand and a T-shirt in the other” and when they spoke to his mother, she described how her son had been “torturing” her for money but when she had refused, “he threatened to cause damage and told her I’m going to f****** burn your house.”

“He was seen on ring doorbell footage trying to light plastic and paper and push them through his mother’s letter box,’ said the judge, adding that the victim “had to hold the letter box shut to stop hm.”

The court heard how Rodgers told police “several times that he was going to burn his mother’s house when he got out of custody” but during later police interviews, he refused to answer questions.

Rodgers, sporting several facial tattoos, appeared at court by videolink from prison today and he heard Judge Miller say the offences were aggravated because of the fact the house belonged to his own mother who was present during the frightening incident.

“It is apparent from the reports that he has a long history of alcohol and drug misuse and acute mental health issues,” said the judge, “he is remorseful for the hurt he has caused his mother.”

Turning to issues for sentencing, Judge Miller said he was satisfied that with nothing similar in his offending history Rodgers was rightly not assessed as a dangerous offender but that given the domestic violence involved as well as his “repeated efforts to follow through on his threats…the level of culpability is high.”

Stepping away from the usual 50/50 split between custody and licence, Judge Miller said he was satisfied that was necessary as Rodgers “is clearly in need of extensive support after release.”