The First Section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has sentenced a man who set fire to his sentimental partner's apartment after an argument to nine years and eleven months in prison for arson.
The man must compensate the victim with 28,455 euros for the damage suffered in his home, and with more than 3,000 euros to the Fire Prevention and Extinction Consortium of the province of Valencia for the expenses generated in extinguishing the flames.
The sentence also condemns him for a minor offense of injury and another of damages and for each of them imposes a fine of 360 euros.
However, it acquits him of the crimes habitual mistreatment, mental injuries and two minor crimes of threats of which he was also accused, since their commission has not been proven.
The events occurred on September 14, 2021 in the house that the convicted person had shared with his partner since August 2017, located in a municipality in the Camp de Morvedre region.
According to the account of the proven facts of the court decision, around half past four in the afternoon, the man began to ingest gin and pills and, when his sentimental partner told him to stop doing so, he attacked the furniture in the house and he broke the TV, the living room table and the coffee maker, among other objects.
The victim's daughter called the phone against abuse, 016, but when the Civil Guard agents showed up at the house, the man had already left her.
That night, the woman decided to sleep at a friend's house and, around midnight, the convicted person called the woman and threatened to burn the house down if she did not return.
After that call, the accused went to the main bedroom and set it on fire, despite knowing that the building was inhabited by other neighbors and that he was putting his life and homes at risk, as stated in the sentence.
When the convicted man left the apartment, he was intercepted by two neighbors with whom he struggled and injured, before being arrested. The flames affected two houses, in addition to the house where the fire started, and common elements of the building.
The sentence is not final and can be appealed before the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV).
