Couple jailed for torching Hampshire pub (From Daily Echo)
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Dean and Melynda Thomas jailed for arson at Tollhouse Inn in Lymington, Hampshire
4:00am Friday 4th January 2013 in News By Ed Stilliard, Senior Reporter
Dean and Melynda Thomas
A LANDLORD and his wife have been jailed for torching their own Hampshire pub.
Dean Thomas was jailed for six years for setting fire to the Tollhouse Inn in Lymington in the early hours after spreading petrol around the bar area and igniting it.
His wife Melynda, 36, was jailed for three years - reduced because of her lesser role in the incident - which had occurred while her teenage daughter, her boyfriend and a pub worker were asleep upstairs.
All the occupants had to escape from a first-floor hatch as the fire raged in the bar, causing £100,000-worth of damage at the Southampton Road pub.
The pair were last month found guilty by a Southampton Crown Court jury of arson being reckless as to endanger life.
Dean Thomas, 42, was also given a 12-month sentence for perverting the course of justice to run concurrent to his six-year sentence after he tried to pin the blame on his brother-in-law.
Jurors heard police found a holdall hidden behind a garage at the pub which contained petrol, gloves and clothes which had fragments of glass from windows smashed during the fire.
A secret camera set up by officers then showed the couple searching the area in which the bag was hidden before arguing, shortly after they had returned for the first time since the blaze.
Handing down the sentences to the pair Judge Peter Henry said: “I have no doubt that as part of that plan it was at the forefront of your mind to get everybody out safely but you had no idea how the fire would spread, how the thick the smoke would be.
“You put people's lives in danger.”
Comments(14)
Lockssmart
says...
6:46am Fri 4 Jan 13
Huey
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7:26am Fri 4 Jan 13
Miss shorty
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7:36am Fri 4 Jan 13
Big Mac
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8:24am Fri 4 Jan 13
hulla baloo
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10:57am Fri 4 Jan 13
http://www.dailyecho
.co.uk/news/crime/10
106775.Couple_convic
ted_of_life_threaten
ing_arson/
Just A Voice
says...
11:08am Fri 4 Jan 13
hulla baloo wrote:HAHAHAHAHA I was waiting to hear from the one person on the planet who think's these were innocent,,,I remember reading her version,,,,thanks for the reminder of who she is,,, innocent my eye (or another body part)
Where is Samiee19 now, see link from earlier echo story. No doubt his info will help them get their conviction overturned on appeal.
http://www.dailyecho
.co.uk/news/crime/10
106775.Couple_convic
ted_of_life_threaten
ing_arson/
bazzeroz
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1:40pm Fri 4 Jan 13
kingnotail
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3:33pm Fri 4 Jan 13
Lockssmart wrote:Come on, most of Hampshire is a pile of toss
Lymington again! That place is worse than the I.O.W.
richieroo
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7:10pm Fri 4 Jan 13
Huey wrote:I'd rather not, it might give me nightmares lol!.
you only have to look at her face to see how guilty she was.
Sir Ad E Noid
says...
9:56pm Fri 4 Jan 13
kingnotail wrote:No, Lymington is going through a tad of a storm at present.
Lockssmart wrote:Come on, most of Hampshire is a pile of toss
Lymington again! That place is worse than the I.O.W.
mischeif98
says...
1:34pm Tue 8 Jan 13
porabbinut
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1:59pm Tue 8 Jan 13
porabbinut
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2:00pm Tue 8 Jan 13
SotonLad says...
5:44am Fri 4 Jan 13