Arsonist who torched Essex asylum seeker hotels jailed after ‘taking matters into own hands’

An Iraqi sheep farmer who set fire to two asylum seeker hotels in Essex has been jailed for almost a decade.

Rawand Abdulrahman, 37, showed no emotion as he was told he faced the potential of being deported at the completion of his prison sentence.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard the arsonist deliberately torched the hotels to get other accommodation.

The inferno caused ‘several hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of damage to the Phoenix Hotel, leaving an entire wing of the property needing to be rebuilt.

The Bell Hotel’s repair bill is estimated to be in the region of £40,000.

Abdulrahman’s defence claimed the ‘hopeless’ criminal – who had been rejected asylum in Sweden before arriving in the UK – was living ‘a life of extreme uncertainty, frustration, fear and desperation’.

But Judge Alexander Mills ruled the arsonist had ‘decided enough was enough’ and took matters into his own hands in an attempt to be moved from the accommodation he said was akin to a ‘prison’.

The court heard the first blaze occurred at the Phoenix Hotel on March 28 last year. It spread from Room 9, which Abdulrahman was sharing with another individual, and caused damage that rendered an entire wing ‘unsafe and inhabitable’, Mr George Penny, prosecutor, said.

Witnesses said the fire was ‘terrifying’, with many families with young children having stayed at The Phoenix Hotel.

The 37-year-old was initially moved to a hotel in Reading, Berkshire, before returning to Essex and given a room at The Bell Hotel in Epping, around five miles from the Phoenix Hotel in North Weald.

On April 5, around a week after the fire at The Phoenix, two mattresses in a shared room were partially set on fire. It resulted in damage to the bed materials, the headboard and decomposition of the bedside cabinets.

Abdulrahman was arrested and later charged. He was convicted of two counts of arson, reckless as to whether life is endangered, after a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, where jurors cleared him of arson with intent to endanger life.

Abdulrahman, who had no previous convictions, was described by his defence barrister as ‘in state-imposed limbo’.

Mr James Cox, defending, said: ‘At the time of the offending, Mr Abdulrahman’s life was one of extreme uncertainty, frustration, fear and desperation. In short, I would submit that he was quite hopeless.

‘This offence took place as the culmination of a life of hardship and hopelessness after years upon years of waiting for his asylum [application] to be processed with no control over his life. The offending took place at a point of heightened desperation and frustration.’

The court heard that, unlike in Sweden, Abdulrahman was unable to work whilst in the UK awaiting the outcome of his asylum application.

Judge Mills said the fire was ‘not a moment of madness’, but arose from a background of frustration.

He added: ‘It’s clear to me that you are willing to do whatever it takes to further a particular outcome, particularly when you do not like it, and think that things will not change otherwise unless you take matters into your own hands.’

Abdulrahman was sentenced to serve eight years in prison with a further three years on licence. He will serve two-thirds before the Parole Board can consider his release.

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