Arsonist jailed for six years over blaze at flats

Gary Horsley set alight to a mattress out of jealousy after seeing his former partner Carole O’Keefe at one of the flats in Sir Karl Cohen Square, Armley, Leeds and the fire spread.

Horsley, 50, of Recreation Terrace, Holbeck, Leeds was found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court last month of arson being reckless whether life was endangered and a common assault.

The court heard just before midnight on May 29 a call was received about a blaze in one of the ground floor flats and when fire officers arrived flames escaping from the window were already reaching up to the second floor windows.

Approximately 40 homes had to be evacuated and the flat where the fire had started was completely gutted.

The occupant Dennis Nobel, 69, who was watching television elsewhere when it began, lost all his belongings and had to be rehoused.

The jury heard Mr Noble had got to know Carole O’Keefe and become friends with her when she was working as a cleaner at the complex. She told police she had split up from Horsley a few months earlier but he had been texting her and accusing her of sleeping with Mr Noble.

That evening she had seen her former partner in Armley Moor and had had an argument with him.

He had gone to the flats with her and CCTV then showed him leaving shortly before the fire could be seen to have started.

Detective Inspector Dan Greenwood said: “This was a terrible incident which has affected the lives of all involved.

“However it could have been so much worse had it not been for the swift actions of the of the emergency services.”

“The lives of so many elderly and vulnerable members of the Leeds community were put at risk and it is nothing short of a miracle that no one was killed.”