THE former director of an radio station has been jailed after burning a caravan to the ground in an act of “vigilantism”.

Arsonist Matthew John Alan North, previously of Weyhill Road, Andover,  was sentenced to two years in prison last Friday after pleading guilty to setting fire to the caravan belonging to Tony Freeman out of “spite and revenge”.

Winchester Crown Court heard that in the early hours of the morning on 7 June, the former Andover Beat boss consumed a large amount of alcohol before going to Atholl Court, Kingsway Gardens, where the caravan was situated.

CCTV showed the 31-year-old knock on the caravan door then look through the window before starting the blaze.

The caravan contained all of Mr Freeman’s worldly possessions which were destroyed in the fire, including his birth certificate with his murdered father’s signature on it.

The incident followed an allegation that Mr Freeman had sexually assaulted a woman known to North and he decided to take matters into his own hands.

The allegation was investigated by police and no further action was taken. Mr Simon Edwards prosecuting said: “At 1.20 hours on June 7 the Hampshire Fire and Rescue service was alerted that the caravan was on fire. They went to the scene and the fire had destroyed the entire caravan and the contents.

Daily Echo:

“The police became involved and what became apparent was that it was an act of vigilantism by this defendant. There was a complaint against Mr Freeman that he had sexually assaulted a woman and the defendant took matters into his own hands and decided to burn the caravan.”

Defending North, Mr James Bloomer described how, following his arrest, he had been excluded from Andover to an address in Basingstoke which had been hard on both him and his family.

He told the court how North has no previous convictions and that both he and his partner are vulnerable because of their mental health.

He said: “He cannot believe what he did and it is not him, he says that it is not the sort of thing he would do.”

North was originally charged with arson with intent to endanger the life of Mr Freeman, but as the victim was not in the caravan at the time the prosecution accepted a guilty plea to arson.

Describing the impact of the fire on Mr Freeman, Her Honour Judge Jane Miller told the court he had lived in the caravan for a number of years after moving out of the family home on Kingsway Gardens and that he was finding it difficult to rebuild his life following the fire.

He had solar panels fitted to the caravan, a generator installed and it contained everything he owned, including a video of the birth of his child.

Mr Freeman’s father was murdered in the mid-1990s and his birth certificate, destroyed by the fire, was one of the last things he had with his father’s handwriting on it.

Passing sentence, Judge Miller, said: “The fire completely destroyed the caravan by the time the fire brigade attended and this is all because of an allegation of sexual assault that the police have investigated and found no evidence.

“The prosecution accepted a plea to simple arson but you took the law into your own hands and you destroyed his life. It was premeditated, you did what you did out of spite and revenge.”

Judge Miller told North that he had put fire crews in “enormous” danger as the caravan contained an unexploded gas canister.

Sentencing him to two years in prison, she concluded: “You took the life of a man and he is struggling to rebuild it.”