Prisoner who started fire in his cell bragged 'I'll pull the mental health card'

A prisoner who set a fire in his cell shamelessly bragged "I'll pull the mental health card so that will get me out of it."

Jaime Crawford, currently residing at HMP Risley in Warrington, had been rehoused within the jail due to drug misuse. A few days after relocating on 21 March this year, authorities conducted a review regarding the decision to let the 30 year old return to his previous wing - however, he was denied this request and informed that it would be reassessed on 25 March.

This decision clearly did not sit well with Crawford as he became linguistically abusive towards staff members. By approximately 3.30pm that same day, the prison's fire alarm blared, suggesting that his cell was alight.

Correctional officers hurried to the incident only to find Crawford inside his cell, lathering his body in liquid (thought to be shower gel) whilst stating he was "greasing up". It took them roughly 25 minutes to break into the fortified room, during which time Crawford displayed an "abusive, non-compliant and obstructive" attitude.

Once he was finally extracted from his cell, he declared: "This is the fourth time I have done it. I know what I'm doing. I'll do what I did with the others and I'll pull the mental health card so that will get me out of it.'", reports the Liverpool Echo.

Crawford, with a past riddled with 45 convictions spanning 89 offences, admitted to arson. He faced sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court today, on June 5.

Prosecutor Nardeen Nemat revealed: "On March 22 2024, in adjudication the defendant told prison officers he would set another fire if he was to be returned to the CSU wing. On March 23, he told prison officers that the intention of the fire was to kill himself and harm the governor."

"Jennifer Gordon, HMP Risley's senior health, safety and fire advisor, indicates that serious damage was caused to the bed area. She found paper with multiple attempts to ignite it within the defendant's cell."

The paper was discovered at the headboard end of the bed, separate from where the fire started, showing numerous scorch and burn marks, suggesting repeated deliberate attempts to start a fire. The cost for repairs, cleaning, and refurbishing the cell amounted to £4,003.02.

"The cause of the fire was the deliberate ignition of the mattress and bedding using a heat source, most likely a vape pen. The biggest risk was to the defendant's life."

The court heard that there was a "very low risk to others in the prison" as the blaze was unlikely to have spread from Crawford's concrete cell. However a prison spokesman said fires in prisons posed "exceptional risk because of the density of population and design of accommodation, and because the prisoners are locked within the building with no way of evacuating themselves."

She commented: "The consequence of a large scale fire in a prison setting is beyond imagination."

Mark Le Brocq, in defence, mentioned that there were "certain mental health issues in this case", and implored Judge Michelle Brown to consider Crawford's guilty plea.

Upon sentencing Crawford to two years and seven months in jail, the judge declared: "This is a serious offence and the custody threshold is more than crossed. Were it not for your personal circumstances and the limited risk of the fire spreading, your sentence would have been considerably higher.

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