The Court of Instruction number 2 of Arrecife has sentenced to 16 months in prison a 45-year-old man who set fire to his house with his mother inside in the capital of Lanzarote. This case is the second of this type that occurred on the island this summer with three weeks of difference.
The man acknowledged that on August 3, at approximately 9:10 p.m., he entered his mother's house on Juan Negrín street in the capital, broke a window to access his brother's room, and placed a burning rag on top of his brother's bed mattress, causing the mattress to catch fire.
Inside the house was his mother, an 81-year-old woman with reduced mobility. The elderly woman had to leave the house for fear that the fire would spread throughout the rest of the house and then alerted the emergency services. The fire had to be extinguished by the firefighters of the Security and Emergency Consortium of Lanzarote, after being alerted by agents of the Citizen Attention Operational Group (GOAC) of the Local Police of Arrecife.
After acknowledging the facts and reaching an agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the man has been sentenced to 16 months in prison, with the accessory of special disqualification for the right to passive suffrage during the term of the sentence and the prohibition of approaching his mother at a distance of less than 300 meters, from her home, her place of work, or any other frequented by her for a period of two years.
In addition, as a form of liability, he must pay 119 euros for the damage to the mattress and 383.60 euros for the damage to the window, as well as pay the costs of the trial.
It should be noted that the man has a criminal record and was sentenced to eleven years, three months and one day in prison by the Provincial Court of Las Palmas in May 2012 for a crime of attempted murder and another six months in prison in June 2012 for a crime of injury. The Court will resolve separately whether or not the execution of the imposed prison sentence is suspended, as it is less than three years.
