A man who “heard voices in his head” set fire to his flat and simply walked away without raising the alarm.

Occupants of adjoining flats at Criccieth were safely evacuated and tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to the one-bedroomed flat at Plas Eifion on the town’s West Parade.

It turned out that defendant Lee Morgan, 36, had used a cigarette lighter to set fire to the sofa and had opened the window - which fuelled the flames.

His guilty plea to reckless arson - as opposed to arson with intent to endanger life - was accepted by the prosecution at Mold Crown Court and he was jailed for three years and four months.

Morgan was said to be unhappy with his life and flat, wanted to burn his old life away, and while he had mental health issues a judge said that was made worse by his use of alcohol and drugs.

Prosecuting barrister Matthew Corbett-Jones said that on the morning of May 16, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service were called to the block of flats owned by Grwp Cynefin  to find the flat ablaze.

People were evacuated, including an elderly woman who had to be helped from the premises.

The fire was in the sitting room of the defendant’s second floor flat and it was extinguished  by five fire fighters who entered wearing breathing apparatus with three hose reel jets.

A window had been broken due to the heat of the fire which introduced unlimited oxygen fuelled the fire and the flat was badly damaged and two adjoining flats were smoke damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

Morgan in interview said he had opened the window because of the smoke and left the building after he started the fire with a lighter.

The fire began to the left of the sofa, floor joists in that area were badly burned, and the fire officer concluded that modern furniture could not easily be set on fire and that deliberate and prolonged effort would have to be made to ignite it.

Interviewed the following day, Morgan said that he “heard voices of family and friends in my head”.

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