The crime took place several days before New Year’s Eve. On that fateful day, the man, who had previously helped the homeowner with various jobs, arrived drunk at her door and wanted to enter the building. The woman refused to let him in. Instead, she called the police, who took the 41-year-old away. When the woman left for friends’ house with her youngest daughter that evening, the man appeared again. Two older children were in the house. The perpetrator set fire to the wood. A tragedy was avoided because one of the children was awake and smelled smoke. The next day, the man repeatedly called the woman and threatened to kill her.
The losses caused by the fire were estimated at approximately PLN 30,000. A wall of the building and part of the roof burned down. The prosecutor accused the 41-year-old of causing an incident that endangered property on a large scale and exposed people to bodily harm and loss of life. Another charge concerned the threats he made. Psychiatrists found that the 41-year-old was emotionally immature. The court found him guilty of the acts with which he was charged and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment. Time spent in custody was counted towards the sentence.
The convicted man was outraged by the verdict because, before the trial, he had used the option provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure and agreed the sentence with the prosecutor, hoping that the court would not hold a trial but would immediately issue a conviction. “The man agreed to a three-year prison sentence, but with a six-year suspended sentence. After analyzing the evidence, the court concluded that, in a case of this kind, suspending the sentence could not be considered,” said Ilona Kata, an assessor at the District Court in Bolesławiec. The verdict is not final.