An entire block of flats had to be evacuated after a jealous ex started a huge blaze outside his partner’s home where she lived with their daughter.
Just hours before Patryk Pogodzinski had scaled a drainpipe and hung through the kitchen window of his former partner’s home before hurling food at her after realising she was video calling her new boyfriend.
After being chased away, the 27-year-old dad went to a nearby garage and bought £5 worth of petrol before returning to her home at 2.30am and starting a huge fire.
Residents from the block of flats on Seaton Drive had to be evacuated by firefighters amid screams of “fire, fire, fire”, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Scaled drainpipe and flung fruit
Fiscal depute Ruarish McAllister said the incidents took place in the early hours of July 3 last year, just three months after Pogodzinski’s eight-year relationship with the woman came to an end.
He said the woman was at her home with her daughter, brother and mum and was on a call to her new partner at around 1.30am when Pogodzinski appeared at the first-floor flat window.
“She heard a noise from the kitchen area and went to investigate,” the fiscal said. “On entering the kitchen she observed the accused had climbed up the drainpipe and was on the other side of the window.
“He was shouting at her in Polish. She ended her call and a verbal altercation ensued where he repeatedly told her ‘you will see’.
“He then began grabbing and throwing the contents of the fruit bowl that sat near the kitchen window.
“The complainer pushed him back out the window and he climbed back down the drainpipe and seen to make off on a white push bike and was lost to view.”
Bought fuel and started blaze
Pogodzinski then cycled to a BP petrol station in King Street and bought about £5 worth of petrol before returning to his ex’s flat.
The fiscal added: “At around 2.05am she heard a noise outside and looked out of the bedroom window to the front of the property and saw smoke and that the garden shed directly below the window was on fire.
“The fire grew larger, with the flames reaching up to the first-floor window and the bedroom of her daughter.
“Fearing for her life she fled the flat along with her brother, mother and daughter.
“Upon evacuating the flat, her brother walked to the back of the flat where he saw the accused standing in the communal garden area holding a fuel container.”
Pogodzinski told another neighbour: “It’s not a big fire, that happens when someone is not paying their bills”.
Two fire engines had to attend to put out the blaze and Pogodzinski was spotted by police officers fleeing the scene on their arrival.
He was later found at his mum’s house, meanwhile his bike and the fuel container were both found dumped near the fire.
Pogodzinski, who appeared in court via video link from HMP Grampian, admitted one charge of wilful fire-raising and another of threatening and abusive behaviour.
He also admitted a charge of theft in relation to an earlier offence, where he walked into a woman’s garage in Cairnwell Place in Aberdeen and stole bottles of alcohol worth £80 on June 11 last year.
His solicitor John Hardie said it was fortunate the fire didn’t spread to other areas and told the court his client understood it was an issue of “extreme seriousness”.
He said Pogodzinski had been in prison since August last year after he was found breaching bail conditions by entering his ex’s street.
No option but to jail him
He now must serve a further 12 months when that sentence is up in August.
Sheriff Andrew Miller told Pogodzinski: “The charges involving your former partner are serious, in particular the charge in which you deliberately started a fire very close to where she lived with your daughter and other people.
“This resulted in other residents having to be evacuated for their safety too.”
He also issued a non-harassment order, meaning Pogodzinski must keep away from his ex-partner for two years.
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