A painter and decorator was jailed for five years today for arson after he set fire to a block of flats, trapping his terrified neighbours inside.

Simon Dear, 27, used turpentine or white spirit, writing paper and pages from a catalogue to set the blaze at the front door of his ground-floor flat in Rochester Street, Windhill, Shipley.

Firefighters were forced to rescue people living in the flat above him, including a sleeping baby, when the block became filled with thick smoke, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Sentencing Dear, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, told him: “Those living above you at the time were trapped and terrified.”

At Dear’s trial in September, Daniel Moody, who lived on the floor above Dear, said he was at home with his girlfriend and was confronted by thick, black smoke when he opened his front door.

Another neighbour, Stephen Danes, was also in an upstairs flat with his 18-month-old son. The court was told that it was only by good fortune that no-one was injured in the blaze.

The trial jury found Dear guilty of causing arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered on August 16, 2008, by a jury.

Dear had denied setting it, despite police finding a jar of turpentine hidden in his flat, along with torn lined paper. A catalogue was also discovered during the police search, with a page torn out which was found by fire investigators among the scorched paper used to set the fire.

He was also found in possession of cannabis when police arrested him at the flats after the fire.

Dear told police in interview that he lived alone at the flat and was watching television when the alarm sounded. He saw smoke and an orange glow, jumped from his balcony and called the fire service. He stuck to his story throughout his trial.

At today's hearing, the judge said he found it “difficult to understand” why Dear had continued to deny arson in the face of “strong and compelling” evidence.

Jailing Dear for five years, he said: “You set the fire, which caused considerable smoke and flames. All those living above you at the time were trapped and terrified and had to be rescued in due course. The matter is so serious that only a sentence of custody can follow.”