A MUM set fire to her council house - because she wanted to be given a home nearer her mother.
Kelly Marie O'Connor, 22, told police teenagers who threatened her with fireworks were behind an arson attack on her Wythenshawe house. But she started the blaze because she didn't like the area and wanted to be moved closer to her mum, a court heard.
Police became suspicious when a neighbour's CCTV camera showed her leaving the house with her two young children while flames flickered.
The fire on Bonfire night last year at the mid-terrace house on Alderue Avenue, Benchill, caused an estimated £2,000 of damage.
O'Connor was spared jail at Manchester Crown Court after she admitted arson and perverting the course of justice. Police said she 'spun a blatant web of lies' and put other lives at risk.
Web of lies
Det Con Rick Anderton said: "It defies belief that anyone would want to set fire to their own home. Not only did O'Connor waste valuable police time by spinning such a blatant web of lies but she endangered lives."
The court was told O'Connor was struggling to raise her children on her own. She was also said to have been suffering from post-natal depression and had just found out she was pregnant again.
O'Connor had been living with her mum on Haveley Road, Benchill, before she moved to the council housing association property on Aderue Avenue just half a mile away.
She was in the Alderue Avenue house for just nine months and now lives back on Haveley Road - two doors away from where she used to live.
She was sentenced to a two-year community order plus two years' supervision.
Target
The court heard O'Connor told police a gang of youths had thrown a firework at her then returned to target her home.
But investigations proved she was lying and was inside the house when the fire began.
Shirley Duckworth, defending, said: "The combination of her post-natal depression, her isolation, her recent discovery of a pregnancy and her low intellectual ability meant she did not take appropriate steps to seek help at that stage.
"She panicked and she thought there was a way of being moved to a different accommodation closer to her mother without ever thinking of the consequences."
O'Connor refused to comment when approached by the M.E.N.
Tweet
Mum set fire to council house to get a new one
November 09, 2009
Kelly Marie O'Connor, 22, told police teenagers who threatened her with fireworks were behind an arson attack on her Wythenshawe house.
Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All
Savage Mandarin, Manchester (09/11/2009 at 08:38)
The girl next door , North west (09/11/2009 at 08:39)
Knowsleyman, Paphos (09/11/2009 at 08:43)
She should have been given a new home in Style.
Should she be permitted to keep her children???????????? and should the latest one on the way be taken away from her at birth.
Low intellect and breading like a rabbit and who is going to pay for it all??????????? Yes, the taxpayer!!!!!!!!!! Glad I am no longer one in England.
Panzer 391, Salford (09/11/2009 at 08:58)
Oh she's got those get out of jail card kids.
Mark,Radcliffe. (09/11/2009 at 09:05)
Angie33 , Manchester (09/11/2009 at 09:17)
dessie, manchester (09/11/2009 at 09:19)
the teenagers of today just dont give a monkeys, the country is on its knees, soft on crime, soft on immigration and soft on benefits.
Mamaduke, Broad Street (09/11/2009 at 09:23)
ednaplate, Salford (09/11/2009 at 09:27)
Bury Pensioner., Bury. (09/11/2009 at 09:27)
selfexiled (09/11/2009 at 09:45)
There is a case here of unwarranted suffering for her children and I have sympathy with the judge in his dilema on what sentence to give,she as no money and a fine would have resulted in more unwarranted suffering on her children.
Lets hope she does'nt burn down any of the premises she does her community service in.
Panzer 391, Salford (09/11/2009 at 09:45)
Your making out she is the victim here and you seem to be blaming somewhat her predicament on 'Predatory males' ?
Women are in charge of who they sleep with and many young girls want to get pregnant to get their free home and no need to work for a living and they're non too fussy who they breed with, they often choose the bad guys in the first place. Her predicament apart from burning her house down is common in the UK and along with our benefits system encouraging this, British women have to accept some blame for whats going on. Actually non of us are responsible for anything any more its always somebody elses fault.
Blue Dude, Manchester. (09/11/2009 at 09:50)
Less 2 for good behaviour = 5.
She starts off in Holloway and IF after 12 months good behaviour she is allowed to transfer to Styal (to be nearer mum) for the next 4 years.
Then after her parole review at 5 years she is told a) Do your remaining 2 years or b) release now with 12 month community service and if you are late or fail to complete the service the sentence reverts back to a).
readersdigest (09/11/2009 at 09:57)
The answer must be if she is not to get a custodial sentence take her children away from her stereilise her and stop the benefits.
Rob Wilson (09/11/2009 at 09:57)
Jay B, oldham (09/11/2009 at 09:59)
dont scrounge off us the tax payer!
its time the benfits culture was abolished! scrap the whole thing now. start something new off that rewards the hard working and gives the lazy and irresponsible nowt!
Pete Onion, manchester (09/11/2009 at 10:07)
This goverment is a joke.. no wonder people are voting BNP.
betty swollocks, reddish (09/11/2009 at 10:10)
BETTY SWOLLOCKS , reddish
gillykins, urmston (09/11/2009 at 10:11)
WAS IT REALLY 37 YEARS, TAMESIDE (09/11/2009 at 10:16)
Justified True Belief , - ... (09/11/2009 at 10:17)
Society needs to rethink how we deal with these "low intellectual" people. 22 years old, 2 kids and a third on the way. The drain on our resources from this person is enormous. Should we really be expected to write blanks checks for these type of people?
Your talking probably twenty (odd) years before her or her family will put anything back into society (if they ever do put anything back).
Hamish Macbeth, Whitefield (09/11/2009 at 10:19)
(1) It would make sense to house young mothers,especially single mothers near their parent/family.
It would make sense for people not to breed until they are emotionally and financially capable of looking after themselves and their children. It should not be the taxpayers job to finance peoples children.
(2) They may then not be such an easy target for predatory males.
Where's this come from. Any male with this lady is an easy target to be burnt to death!
(3)I think housing allocation needs a complete overhaul to take into account the vulnerability of young single mums and their children.
True - they should live at the Grandparents home and not be given another house off the State. The benefit system also needs a complete overhaul to discourage the rabbit like breeding of those unable to be responsible parents. We dont give some of these people a driving licence - they should not have an open licence to breed like rabbits at our expense!
Especially in a case like this where there are other issues.They may then not be such an easy target for predatory males.This was an utterly stupid and dangerous thing to do but shouldnt have been nessessary.I think housing allocation needs a complete overhaul to take into account the vulnerability of young single mums and their children.
willing to listen, Middleton (09/11/2009 at 10:26)
The children, because of lack of proper family values and no father figure, will no doubt grow into the feral scum who roam the streets, the likes of Kelly Marie O'Conner and the 1000's like her, are a drain on todays society and although her defence lawyer (one guess, as to who is paying for her defence) claims she suffers from low intellectual ability, But it would seem, not so low, that she is so calculating, to set fire to her own home, spin a web of blatant lies, and........ at the end of all this, be rewarded and actually get what she set out to do !!
tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw (09/11/2009 at 10:33)
So again our judges are handing out useless sentences.
What a waste of space she is.
tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw (09/11/2009 at 10:33)