Driver who helped vengeful arsonist torch Wakefield home warned over sentencing delay
He has twice failed to get a barrister, but given one last chance
A driver who helped transport a woman 100 miles to a Wakefield village so she could torch the property of her former lover has been warned he has one final chance to secure legal representation.
Following a trial in June, Carl Ford was found guilty of helping Julie Trahearn set fire to the home of her ex’s new partner, who was sleep inside at the time.
She was jailed last month but driver Ford did not have a barrister at the time, so his case was adjourned on that occasion.
The 43-year-old appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week to hear his fate, but again he had failed to employ counsel.
Ford told the court he had been to a legal firm in Leeds, but claimed they had “not got back” to him.
Judge Anesh Pema agreed to adjourn the case one final time, to December 4, but told Ford: “This is not happening again. You have one final chance.
“You need to secure someone to represent you on that day. It was a trial that took place a long time ago. There won’t be anymore delays.”
Ford, of Queslett Road, Birmingham, had been found guilty of arson and arson reckless as to life being endangered.
He drove Treahearn from the Birmingham area up to the village of Lofthouse in the summer of 2023.
The court was told that Trahearn, of Brushfield Road, Birmingham, was in a relationship with the victim which ended in November 2022, but she did not take it well.
She made his life a misery, along with his new partner, sending threatening emails and letters.
She was later convicted and jailed for stalking by a court in the West Midlands.
But during that period, she had also learned the address of his ex’s new partner on Leeds Road in Lofthouse.
In the early hours of July 11, 2023, Trahearn and Ford made the journey north.
Precautions were taken, with Trahearn bringing rubber gloves and the flammable liquid in plastic bottles.
They had even changed the car’s registration plate, sticking tape over a letter to change it from a “P” to an “R”, in order to avoid detection by ANPR cameras.
Arriving in West Yorkshire, Ford stayed in the car as Trahearn set fire to the Audi using the liquid.
It then spread to the front of the house.
The couple inside the home were asleep but were awoken and noticed the flicker from the flames outside. They got out and raised the alarm with neighbours.
The car was destroyed and the building damaged. The total cost of the damage came to £37,614.
During her trial, Trahearn claimed she had been at a pub quiz hours before, had gone home and remained there.
During cross examination she was also proved to have lied about other issues.
Judge Pema told Trahearn: “You carefully planned your actions for that day. It was clearly a revenge attack.
“There were multiple people endangered.”
He gave her a jail sentence of five years and nine months, with an extended licence period of three years to mark her dangerousness, making a total of eight years and nine months.
She was handed a new restraining order of indefinite length to keep her away from her ex and his new partner.