CENTRAL NEWS SERVICE, PRESS ROOM, CENTRAL CRIMINAL

CENTRAL NEWS SERVICE, PRESS ROOM, CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, OLD
BAILEY,EC4;TEL:236-O116.

HIGH COURT, NOVEMBER 6, 1986/AVM.

FIRE

A 4O-YEAR-OLD AINTREE FATHER-OF-THREE WHO SET FIRE TO A NORTH
WALES BOATYARD FROM WHICH HE HAD BEEN MADE REDUNDANT TODAY [THURSDAY]
LOST HIS APPEAL AGAINST A THREE-YEAR JAIL SENTENCE.

PETER REGINALD HOPKINS OF KINGSWOOD AVENUE HAD PLEADED GUILTY
AT CAERNARVON CROWN COURT IN FEBURARY TO ARSON AT LESLIE MARINE’S
BOATYARD IN TREWFRIW NEAR LLANDUDNO LAST JULY.

DISMISSING HIS APPEAL, LORD JUSTICE NEILL SAID IN THE CRIMINAL
APPEAL COURT IN LONDON THAT THE SENTENCE WAS NOT EXCESSIVE.

‘THE PLACE WHERE THE FIRE WAS SET WAS RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE VILLAGE’, HE COMMENTED.

LORD JUSTICE NEILL SAID HOPKINS HAD BEEN MADE REDUNDANT BY THE
BOATYARD — ‘IN CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH CAUSED CONSIDERABLE RESENTMENT’ —
SHORTLY BEFORE THE FIRE.

HE REPORTED: ‘ON THE EVENING OF JULY 22 HE WENT TO THE VILLAGE
PUB POOLROOM AND TOLD A MAN NAMED GILBERT, A BOAT-BUILDER EMPLOYED BY
LESLIE MARINE, THAT HE WAS GOING TO BURN DOWN THE BOATYARD.

‘HE SET FIRE TO THE YARD BY THROWING A LIGHTED MATCH IN A
WINDOW.

‘ALMOST IMMEDIATELY HE TOLD SOMEONE WHAT HE HAD DONE, AND THE
FIRE BRIGADE AND POLICE WERE CALLED.

‘WHEN POLICE SAW HIM HE HAD A FIRE EXTINGUISHER AND WAS
COVERED WITH WHITE FOAM’.

LORD JUSTICE NEILL SAID A PROBATION OFFICER HAD DESCRIBED
HOPKINS’ ACTION AS ‘ENTIRELY OUT OF CHARACTER’.

HIS COUNSEL, MR.

MICHAEL WOLFF, SAID HOPKINS SHOWED
‘TREMENDOUS REMORSE’.

END