The idea would have come to him while he was watching television.

Feeling "a certain fascination" for fire, a 40-year-old man had voluntarily lit two fires on the evening of August 12 at La Chapelle-d'Aligné (Sarthe) to see "what it was like on the ground".

Judged in immediate appearance Tuesday at Le Mans, the defendant was sentenced to six months in prison.

Despite the drought and thanks to the rapid intervention of firefighters, the fires he had lit were limited "to a hedge and a bit of dry grass, along a road", according to the mayor of the town. commune quoted by the newspaper

Le Maine Libre

.

Spotted by a farmer from the town, who had followed the alleged arsonist to his home, the latter had been arrested by the gendarmes.

At his home, the investigators had found firelighters, a torch and gasoline.

A sentence served under an electronic bracelet

Placed in police custody, the man ended up admitting to being the author of the two fires after three hearings, according to the president of the court.

A father, divorced for fifteen years and working in the same company for 23 years, the defendant “was particularly affected by the Covid”, underlined his lawyer Me Donya Forghani, who asked the court for a psychiatric expertise.

The forty-year-old would have had a bad experience of confinement, a period during which he was hospitalized for depression.

In its deliberation, the court sentenced him to 12 months in prison, including six months suspended on probation for two years.

Given the absence of a criminal record and his social and professional integration, he will serve the firm sentence under an electronic bracelet.

Justice

Fires: Twenty suspected arsonists arrested by the police since the beginning of the summer

An arsonist arrested and placed in a psychiatric hospital

  • Justice

  • Fire

  • Fire

  • Pyromaniac

  • Le Mans

  • Pays de la Loire