Stephen Holden (Image: Gwent Police)
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A 58-year-old who told his neighbour he was going to slice her throat while holding an axe, then torched his council house two days later, has been jailed for two and a half years.
Stephen Holden, of Lime Court in Pantside, Newbridge, admitted arson and making threats to kill. Cardiff Crown Court heard on Monday that he has 21 previous convictions, including for battery and assaulting a police constable.
The axe
The woman had lived next door to Holden for around four years, and the court heard the problems between them had been getting worse. At about 9.30pm on May 8 she heard scaffolding being smashed outside and opened her door to see Holden through a gap in the fence, swinging an axe at it.
When she asked what he was doing, he replied that he “wanted to kill himself” and needed help. Prosecutor Nuhu Gobir said Holden held the blade to his own throat, telling her a “device” had been put there by someone and that he needed to cut it out.
She rang the emergency services and tried to keep him talking, but he turned on her. He said: “I am going to slice your throat, I’m going to kill you, I am going to kill you and p**s on you.” He repeated the threat over and over while she stayed on the phone.
Officers who arrived believed Holden was having a mental health episode. He was detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to St Cadoc’s Hospital, only to be discharged at 5am the following morning.
The fire
At about 2.20pm on May 10 the same neighbour heard banging from Holden’s house and called 999 again, frightened for her safety. When she went outside, Holden walked out of his front door looking calm and collected as smoke billowed from the property behind him. A second neighbour spotted a large amount of black smoke and also rang the emergency services.
Asked what he had done, Holden said: “I wanted a fire so I lit one, I’d get out of your house if I was you.” He then sat on his step smoking a cigarette, behaving as if “nothing had happened”.
When police arrested him he again spoke about the device in his neck, which he claimed was controlling what he said. He was detained under the Mental Health Act for a second time.
An investigation found the blaze had been started by a naked flame applied to paper or cardboard. The house, which is owned by Caerphilly council, suffered £5,000 worth of damage.
Victim’s statement
In a statement read to the court by Mr Gobir, the neighbour said she had suffered “trauma, harassment and intimidation” at Holden’s hands, and that both her mental health and her child’s had been affected. She described anxiety, panic attacks and nightmares, and said she had been “fearing for her life” while he was holding the axe. Holden, she said, had shown “no empathy or remorse”.
Sentencing
Nick Gedge, defending, described his client as a “troubled man” with significant mental health issues.
Judge Shomon Khan said he believed Holden had been more intent on harming himself than anyone else, and that he should have been kept in hospital for a longer period.
Holden was jailed for two years and six months and made subject to an indefinite restraining order.
