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Suspended cinema worker spared jail for setting himself on fire
Judge says 21-year-old man was suffering from serious illness.
A disgruntled employee who turned himself into a human fireball inside a cinema complex was saved from serious injury by staff.
And Michael Fox was also saved from an immediate prison sentence by a Judge at Luton Crown Court on Friday.
Judge John Bevan QC told the 21-year-old; "I am bound to say that in not sending you to prison I am taking a risk, and it may be the 60-odd people at Cineworld that night will not be impressed by this sentence.
"But in my view the motive here was a mixture of suicide and revenge. If it had been merely to exact revenge, custody would have been inevitable. But this was also a genuine attempt at suicide and you suffer from severe medical conditions which have damaged your quality of life."
Fox, of King Edward Road, Bedford pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered. He was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years with supervision.
Martin Lahiffe, prosecuting, said Fox had been employed at Cineworld in Bedford but had been suspended and disciplinary proceedings had begun.
"On June 25 this year at 6.20pm he sat in the centre of the foyer of the cinema, poured petrol over himself and struck a match and threw it on the floor. It set the carpet alight and he was engulfed in the flames.
"He also had a bag with him full of aerosol cans which started to explode."
The barrister said staff immediately began evacuating about 60 customers and the duty manager rolled Fox over and the flames were extinguished.
He was treated for injuries to his face, chest, arms and legs and three days later transferred to a secure mental unit for a month. He was then remanded in Bedford Prison.
Robert Spencer-Barnard, defending, said Fox had good qualifications from school and had gone to Loughborough University to study automotive engineering but had dropped out due to repeated surgery for a medical condition.
"He has always felt under pressure to be a success but has also felt that if anything has the potential to go wrong for him it will go wrong.
"He would find a long prison sentence very difficult to come to terms with. This conviction is going to have an appalling impact on his life."
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Weather for Bedford
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
