Petrol bomb attacker who targeted neighbours' home while they slept jailed for ten years - The Coventry Observer

Petrol bomb attacker who targeted neighbours' home while they slept jailed for ten years

Coventry Editorial 19th Jul, 2019 Updated: 19th Jul, 2019   0

A NEIGHBOUR from hell who put the lives of his own family at risk as well when he hurled a petrol bomb at the house next door in the dead of night has been jailed for ten years.

James Banning had denied carrying out the arson attack on the semi-detached house next to his home claiming his neighbours were trying to pin the terrifying attack on him.

But the 36-year-old, of Hall Close, Stoneleigh, was convicted of arson being reckless whether life was endangered and harassment after a trial at Warwick Crown Court last month.

Jailing him, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC also made a restraining order banning him from having any contact with Louise Diamond and David Roddis, who have since moved away, for 20 years.




During the trial prosecutor Graeme Simpson said: “This is all about a history between next-door neighbours which escalated and spiralled out of control, but which by good fortune did not have disastrous consequences.”

In April last year Ms Diamond reported Banning to Warwick District Council for noise nuisance caused by his business of repairing items including mowers and motorbikes.


Banning found out about it and launched a campaign against her which started with phone calls, including one threatening to kill her.

Later the the windows of her car and Mr Roddis’s car and the kitchen window were smashed.

Banning continued even after Ms Diamond had reported him to the police and he was on bail

Graffiti appeared on a nearby bridge reading ‘Louise Diamond is a grass’ and posters of her put up around the village.

“But the campaign took a far more sinister turn on the night of the 30th of September,” said Mr Simpson.

The couple had gone to bed, and taking turns to sleep for fear of Banning, when Mr Roddis heard a noise in the early hours of the morning.

The couple realised to their horror the front of their Warwick District Council house was on fire, so they got out through a side door and called the police and fire brigade.

Mr Roddis moved his partner’s BMW away from the house, but his own Mercedes was already ablaze, and when Ms Diamond later checked their CCTV system, ‘it chilled her to the bone.’

It showed Banning approaching the house from the nearby village hall car park, carrying something that was burning and dripping burning liquid onto the road.

In his other hand he had a hammer with which he tried to smash the windows of Mr Roddis’s car, without success.

“He then, with some force, threw the burning object directly at the front of the house and then fled back to the car park and left in a car,” said Mr Simpson.

In court Banning denied carrying out the arson attack, claiming the couple were trying to pin it on him because of their feud – which was rejected by the jury.

Rashad Mohammed, defending, said there was ‘acceptance of some wrong-doing’ in the pre-sentence report – in which Banning claimed he had ‘got someone to do something,’ but did not know it was going to be to set a fire.

But Judge Andrew Lockhart QC responded: “I completely reject that.”

Jailing Banning, the judge told him: “This was a campaign by you against her (Louise Diamond), and you behaved utterly appallingly. You were arrogant and were seeking to impose yourself on that family. It was shameful, utterly shameful.

“Purely by good luck neither Ms Diamond nor Mr Roddis, nor your own family were harmed.

“This is as serious a case of reckless arson as this court has had to deal with. There was a huge risk to life.

“This was a revenge-type attack for the complaints made as part of an ongoing dispute. At least two, if not more, lives were endangered – and you simply ran away.

“One of them was sleeping and one was not, such was their concern over you. A normal family would have been asleep, and death would have been an almost certainty.”

After sentencing Det Sgt Rich Simpkins said: “This was a reckless attack that could so easily have had tragic consequences for the occupants. It is clear Banning is an extremely dangerous man and jail is undoubtedly the best place for him.”

 

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