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Search forJudge orders probe into 'danger' left to roam streets
Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 09:22
At Exeter Crown Court Judge Stephen Wildblood QC heard that Devon fire raiser Martin Cooper had been roaming the streets despite the fact that he could pose a serious danger to the public and was finally arrested on warrant in Wales.
"I will not speak in forked tongues in a public court," said Judge Wildblood. "But when he was caught with the knife on him after being given a community order he told police: 'I was coming to Exeter to meet nice women. I had the knife in my pocket and I suppose I would have used it to force women to have sex with me'. But he was only given four months by the magistrates despite being in breach of the community order for arson. I am not prepared to let this case fall through the net. I want a straightforward answer to this case."
The judge ordered that the Crown Prosecution Service investigate why the case was not sent by the lower court to the Crown Court for sentence.
At the original hearing 33-year-old Cooper admitted starting a blaze in Dawlish in 2006 and was given a community order with a mental health requirement.
Then in July Cooper appeared for the breach and also for possessing a knife in public. For that offence he was returned to the magistrates for sentence with Judge John Neligan expecting the Bench to commit him back the Crown Court for sentence on the knife possession charge and also so he could be dealt with for breaching the community order imposed for the arson.
But in a surprise move the magistrates jailed Cooper for four months for possessing the knife and because he had already spent 53 days on remand he was released three days later.
Judge Neligan said he could not order that Cooper be arrested and remanded in custody for breaching the community order as he had not committed any other offence which would enable the court to hold him in prison.
The judge ordered that psychiatric and psychological reports be prepared on Cooper to assess what risk he posed of danger to the public.
"Why on earth the magistrates decided to sentence him knowing that he was facing breach proceedings for the arson I simply don't know. I anticipated the magistrates would commit him in custody for sentence by this court and I am disappointed they didn't do that," said Judge Neligan. "Words pray on my lips that nothing happens while he is free on the streets. At the moment there is no power for the court to order his detention now he has been released."
The court heard that when Cooper was originally sentenced for the arson it was a condition that he submit to full mental health treatment.
Cooper then went on the run until he was arrested late last week in Wales.
At the arson sentencing hearing the court was told that Cooper had drunk 12 pints of lager before going to Dawlish Warren and using a lighter to set fire to two wheeled bins under a block of flats.
A fire officer was to say later that there was a window open in the flats and had the blaze not been extinguished the occupants would have died from smoke inhalation.
The court heard Cooper who at the time was living in Meadow Rose, Dawlish, called the emergency services after setting fire to the bins and waited for the fire brigade to arrive.
