A ‘DANGEROUS and disturbed’ criminal who set fire to a skip believing there was someone sleeping inside has been jailed for 10 years.

Andrew John Murray, 32, of no fixed abode, also broke into schools around Weymouth and the town’s college during a burglary spree.

Murray was sentenced for offences of arson with intent to endanger life and for burglary when he appeared at Dorchester Crown Court.

Prosecutor Clifford Grier told Judge Harvey Clark that Murray set fire to two skips at the back of Matalan in Weymouth in March and broke into Weymouth College, All Saints School and Wyke Regis Infants School.

Mr Grier said Murray was arrested and interviewed by the police after the arson attack and told the officers he had set the fire deliberately.

The court heard Murray told the officers he believed there was a man sleeping in the skips who had stolen £10 from him and that he had ‘wanted to burn that male to death.’ Mr Grier said officers later investigated to see if a man was in the skip or whether it was a ‘figment of his imagination’ but could not come up with a conclusive answer.

The court heard Murray also broke into a kitchen at Weymouth College and stole food in March.

Mr Grier said Murray had also broken into All Saints School and Wyke Regis Infants School, stealing food from a staff fridge and a charity collection box during the raids.

The court heard Murray had 21 convictions for 61 previous offences. Judge Clark noted these included a six-year prison sentence for two rape convictions, one of which he described as ‘brutal and humiliating’, and a conviction for indecent assault.

Anne Bellchambers, mitigating, told the court psychiatric assessments of Murray deemed him to be a ‘dangerous person.’ She added that her client hoped there might be ‘some light at the end of the tunnel’ for him after he has completed a jail term.

Handing down his sentence, Judge Clark told Murray he was ‘completely satisfied there is a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm’ by him.

The judge added: “You set fire to skips outside the Matalan store in Weymouth apparently in the belief that another vagrant was sleeping within it.

“You hoped and intended to incinerate the other man.

“Also you said in an interview that you wanted to torch him to death.”

The judge noted that after Murray was released from police custody later that day he went out and bought lighter fluid with the intention of finding the man and burning him.

Judge Clark added: “I’m satisfied you are a dangerous and disturbed man given to violent fantasies in which you exercise power over others.”

On the arson charge, the judge made Murray the subject of a 10-year prison sentence, adding that he will have to apply for parole after at least half the sentence is served if he is to be released.

On the three burglary charges, the judge handed down a concurrent 18-month prison term.