Two teenagers have been jailed for two years each after pleading guilty to causing a fire that destroyed a bus in Sparkhill. CCTV from the blaze, which captured the youths setting fire to the back seats on the top deck on 12 June, was issued to the media and led officers to the identity of the arsonists. The boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to causing arson with intent to danger life at an earlier hearing at Birmingham Crown Court. During their inquiries, officers discovered how the pair boarded the number two National Express, Maypole to Birmingham, bus at around 1.30pm. The driver challenged one of the boys because he did not have a valid ticket and the other one then had to pay for him. The boys got off the bus on the Stratford Road and as the driver looked up through his periscope, he saw the top deck of the bus was alight. He managed to evacuate all the passengers but the bus was a write-off and £150,000 in damage had been caused. CCTV recovered from the blaze showed the pair ripping up newspaper, spraying it with deodorant and then setting it alight. Images of just the boys were then circulated in the media and within two days, people had called the police with their names. Weve released this footage in a bid to warn other youngsters of the danger of fire and its consequences.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:53:42 +0000
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