Mansfield man who set his bedroom on fire told police ‘I have done a stupid thing’

Lee Bramley had been living at the hostel for ex-offenders and people with drink and drug problems for five years when he set fire to the mattress in his first-floor room, on Sunday, July 25, at 10.30am.

Samuel Lowne, prosecuting at Nottingham Crown Court, said Bramley locked the room and walked out of the address on Chesterfield Road South, Mansfield.

But firefighters from Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service tackled the fire quickly and, because he shut his door, the court heard, the fire did not spread.

Days earlier, Bramley, aged 51, was cautioned for punching a fellow resident and threatening to ‘kill everyone in this house’, if he lost his accommodation.

He told police he was ‘sick of people and had had enough of living at the address’, but only wanted to hurt himself.

He said he spent the night before the fire in Titchfield Park, where he consumed alcohol and diazepam.

In a statement, the director of Haven Supported Housing said he felt ‘betrayed by Lee for all the help and understanding he received’, after offering him a room when he spent a year sleeping rough under a bridge.

Convictions

The court heard Bramley has 11 previous convictions for 41 offences, mainly of theft, but had stayed out of trouble between 2001 and 2015.

Bramley, of Chesterfield Road South, Mansfield, admitted arson being reckless whether life was endangered.

Caroline Sellars, mitigating, said he deserved full credit for his early guilty plea, but could not recall events because he had been abusing alcohol and drugs.

She said: “He was very frank with officers, he said ‘I deserve everything that's coming to me’.

“He understands exactly where the director's disappointment, frustration and upset is coming from. He feels he has let him down.

“He is fearful of life after prison. In custody he has no access to alcohol.

“He says ‘I can't just have one drink, it’s all or nothing and things take a dive when it's all’.

Jailing him for 32 months, Judge Mark Watson said it was tragic to see him in the dock ‘after a long period of staying out of trouble’.

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