Police seized a DIY Molotov cocktail after a man threatened to petrol bomb his former drinking partner’s flat.
Carl Kelly told Darren Bushell he was going to kill him and his two children when the pals fell out in July last year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Kelly made the improvised bomb out of a vase, cloth and flammable liquid following a two-day cocaine bender.
But the drunken defendant left the weapon at a friend’s home when he went to buy some vodka and was reported to police.
When officers arrested the 32-year-old, he staged a dirty protest in a police vehicle.
The court heard how Mr Bushell had told Kelly to stop coming to his home in Heydean Road, Allerton on July 11.
Ian Harris, prosecuting, said: “He said he would petrol bomb the flat. Mr Bushell was extremely frightened by the threats, which he repeated.
“He shouted through the letterbox threats to kill him, by burning the flat down with the complainant and his children in it, or to stab him in front of his children.”
‘Molotov cocktail’
Mr Harris said the victim taped up his letterbox, but was too scared to go to the police.
A man called Anthony Smith, who lived opposite Mr Bushell, said Kelly came to his home on July 13.
He told him he was going to burn Mr Bushell’s flat down and showed him the Molotov cocktail.
Mr Smith knocked on neighbours’ doors and asked them to call the police.
Officers who attended Mr Smith’s flat could smell petrol and spotted a triangular bottle containing liquid, with a half-soaked cloth inside.
Kelly’s DNA and fingerprints were found on the bottle, which a police investigator said was a viable “Molotov cocktail”.
Judge David Aubrey, QC, said: “That Molotov cocktail or petrol bomb was at a location and ready to go. It was in close proximity to Mr Bushell’s premises.”
Mr Harris replied: “The prosecution case is the defendant made that item. The defendant had left it at the address to go and buy some vodka.”
Police located and arrested Kelly at around 8.15pm.
‘It wasn’t an easy arrest’
Mr Harris said: “It wasn’t an easy arrest. The defendant followed up a threat to soil himself by going wild. He smeared faeces over the plastic screen in the police vehicle.”
Kelly admitted making threats to kill, making and having an explosive substance, criminal damage and breaching a suspended sentence.
He has previous convictions for possessing offensive weapons in public, including a meat cleaver and hunting knife.
In 2014 he was handed a 12-week sentence, suspended for two years, for harassment.
He bombarded the mother of his three-year-old son with text messages and threatened to break her jaw after she split up with him.
Isobel Thomas, defending, said her client heard Mr Bushell was having an affair with his girlfriend and went on a “two-day cocaine and alcohol binge”.
She said: “That led to the defendant being driven by anger and rage to the complainant.”
Ms Thomas said Kelly’s dad was a drug dealer, who disappeared when Kelly was 12, leading him to believe he was murdered.
She said this had a “profound effect” on Kelly’s life, leaving him with emotional problems he needed to address.
Ms Thomas said Kelly pleaded guilty on the basis he only intended to scare Mr Bushell and did not plan to confront him with the Molotov cocktail.
Judge Aubrey said: “I find that difficult to accept.”
Jailing Kelly for five years, the judge added: “At the very least you must have intended to install fear into your victim by showing it to him and confronting him, otherwise there would have been no purpose whatsoever.”
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Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/