A DANGEROUS arsonist who set fire to his hospital room and then laughed about it has been detained indefinitely for the public’s protection under the Mental Health Act.

Antoni Carre, 21, rigged up an incendiary device using a cup, shaving gel and wires to start a blaze in a “frightening” incident on the Thornton Ward at Bradford’s Lynfield Mount Hospital on January 25.

Carre, a paranoid schizophrenic, laughed at the danger he had caused to himself and the nine patients on the ward and had to be restrained by the police, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron said Carre was charged with arson with intent to endanger life, but the Crown now accepted his guilty plea to the lesser offence of reckless arson.

Carre was an in-patient at the mental health hospital in Heights Lane, Daisy Hill, and under staff observation, when he set the fire, the court was told.

He had been made the subject of a Hospital Order in 2015 for setting fire to a hostel for the homeless.

Carre was a resident at Westwood Keyhouse Hostel in Richmond Street, Keighley, when he started a fire in his room on November 16, 2014.

He pleaded guilty to reckless arson after lighting curtains at the hostel while under the influence of Ecstasy, cannabis and legal highs.

Mr Hendron said Carre was being treated for paranoia and psychosis at Lynfield Mount when he started the blaze.

He was on a locked ward after leaving without permission and being at large for a month.

Staff suspected he had hidden a cigarette lighter and he was under observation.

The day before, he had been “lucid and pleasant” when speaking to his treating psychiatrist, the court heard.

But at 2pm on the day of the fire, he repeatedly closed the observation hatch and then banged on the door to his room.

Staff smelt burning and discovered Carre had lit a fire, with flames already two feet high from his burning clothing.

He told the police he was upset and angry and started the blaze to escape.

He had previous convictions for shop theft, burglary, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon, as well as the 2014 reckless arson.

Carre’s barrister, Assumpta O’Rourke, conceded it was a “frightening and stressful situation” for staff and patients at Lynfield Mount.

Carre was now receiving treatment at Newton Lodge, a mental hospital in Wakefield.

Judge David Hatton QC made an order under the Mental Health Act that Carre be treated in a secure hospital without limit of time to protect the public.