Asylum seeker tried to torch Leeds home because he 'did not get the help he wanted'
An asylum seeker set fire to the house he was assigned after becoming frustrated, claiming that nobody would help him.
Zaidan Hossan Taha, from Kurdish Iraq, started a blaze in the shared Armley property then left without raising the alarm, Leeds Crown Court heard.
The 24-year-old was jailed after admitting arson reckless as to whether life was endangered, and assault of an emergency worker after he later spat in the face of an officer.
The court heard that Taha had come to the west for a “nicer life” after rebelling against his Muslim upbringing.
He was placed in the multiple-occupancy house on Redshaw Road, but in April last year made a call to the housing company and was unhappy with the conditions, threatening to burn it down.
He was arrested, taken into custody and later released.
But on May 2 the fire service called the police to say that a fire had been started at the property, and that it was full of smoke.
Taha had lit a blanket using a lighter in the kitchen area and threw it on a sofa, hoping it would take hold, before leaving the property.
He later said the smoke alarm had been sounding, although nobody else was home at the time. The fire failed to take hold and the smoke damage was limited to the kitchen area.
Taha, now of no fixed address, was arrested in the early hours of the morning. But he became irate in the police station and spat in the officer’s face.
Mitigating, Stephen Littlewood said that Taha spat at the officer because he felt like they were “making fun of him” at the time.
He said that he came to the UK for a better life but it “did not turn out that way”, living on £49 a week and unable to work.
He said he was fed up of his food being stolen in the house, had been attacked, had been locked out of his bedroom so was sleeping on the sofa and felt nobody was listening to him.
It was found that Taha was suffering from an acute polymorphic psychotic disorder at the time, which caused delusions and led to a deterioration in his mental health.
Mr Littlewood said: “While it does not excuse his behaviour, in my submission it clearly had an impact on him. It was out of character for the defendant, he found himself in desperate circumstances.”
He said he was not reconciled with his family in Iraq and wants to be deported.
Judge Kate Rayfield accepted it was an “act of desperation” to torch the house, and despite nobody being home, it was part of a mid-terrace and could have spread to other properties where people were home.
She jailed him for 26 months and told him he is likely to be deported after serving his sentence.