BIRKENHEAD MAN JAILED FOR LIFE FOR MURDERING GRANDMOTHER IN ARSON
A man who caused the death of his grandmother by igniting her bed while she was sleeping has been sentenced to life in prison.Steven Hampson, 26 years old and intoxicated at the time, broke into the home of his grandmother, Mary Woolley, in Birkenhead.
Using her own lighter, he started two fires after entering her bedroom while she was resting.
The Liverpool Crown Court heard that Hampson harbored hatred towards his grandmother and that she held him responsible for the recent suicide of his brother, Tony, two months earlier.
Court proceedings revealed that Hampson, who had been drinking throughout the day, watched as the flames grew and then fled, leaving his 70-year-old grandmother to die in the blaze.
Prosecutor Gordon Cole explained that Mrs Woolley awoke and called her daughter in a distressed state before the fire broke out.
Despite rescue attempts, she passed away the following day.
The judge mandated a minimum of 17 years’ imprisonment, describing the act as wicked.
The judge also noted Hampson’s failure to help his grandmother and expressed that Hampson, who saw the fire, abandoned her.
Hampson expressed remorse, questioning his actions with statements like, "I don't know what I was thinking.
I don't know whether when I picked the lighter up I was thinking I would kill her." The case brought to light long-standing family conflicts, worsened by the recent suicide of Tony Hampson, with relatives blaming Steven.
Hampson admitted to deliberately causing the fire, and it was established he had been drinking all day before the incident.
