Judge calls for psychiatric assessment of man who started blaze in apartment block
A tenant who put his neighbours’ lives at risk by starting a fire in a block of flats in Seaton is to undergo a psychiatric assessment before he is sentenced.
Connor Hallett was due to be sentenced at Exeter Crown Court but the case was adjourned by Judge Timothy Rose because no report was available.
Hallett, aged 21, of Harbour Road, Seaton, admitted arson, being reckless whether lives were endangered, at an earlier hearing.
He started a fire in his flat at the block of 14 apartments above the Royal Clarence pub on the morning of December 2, 2018.
Three residents were treated by ambulance paramedics at the scene after the entire building and some adjacent properties were evacuated and roads around the flats were closed.
An aerial platform from Exeter fire station and nine other appliances from Colyton, Axminster, Lyme Regis, Honiton, Ottery St Mary, Beaminster, Charmouth and Sidmouth were deployed to the incident.
Judge Rose remanded Hallett in custody and adjourned sentencing to June 13. He ordered reports to be prepared by consultant psychiatrist Dr John Sandford and the probation service.
Hallett was not present for the short hearing.
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