Spurned lover gets ten years for fire attack on ex's flat

Published on Thursday 25 February 2010 21:45

A SPURNED lover who risked hundreds of lives when he tried to murder his ex-girlfriend by setting fire to her tower-block home was jailed for ten years yesterday.

Darren Clark poured petrol on the door of the ground-floor flat and set it alight while Evelyn Ross was inside.

His ex-girlfriend's mother Janis, 41, and sister Lisa Triplett, 17, were also in the flat.

The entrance was set ablaze, but the fire was put out before it took hold of the rest of Fort House in Leith – which houses hundreds of people.

The High Court in Falkirk heard that the incident occurred on 3 July last year, after Clark and Ms Ross, 20, had argued – and he had threatened to "firebomb" her.

The couple had been in a relationship, but had split up a short time before.

Clark, of no fixed abode, appeared for sentence after being found guilty last month of attempted murder.

Judge Lord Emslie told Clark: "No-one was physically hurt and, equally luckily for you, people were not asleep and were able to put out the fire."