A scorned lover who tried to murder a family-of-five by ramming a car into their Fife home and firebombing it has been jailed for 13 years.
Jurors saw CCTV footage of screaming children fleeing from the family home as their father bravely went back inside to tackle the fierce blaze.
Darren Reape, 33, set up the revenge plot and contracted a driver called Michael Reddington to ram the stolen car into the integral garage door of the home in Lochgelly.
He also roped in Robert Lawrie, 44 and he was jailed for eight years after the jury heard he bought the petrol used to torch the car.
Judge Paul Brown imposed a lifelong ban on Reape contacting any of his victims, including his ex-wife who he tried to force into providing him with a false alibi.
Rammed car into house
At a sentencing hearing on Friday, the judge pointed out most of the family – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – were asleep at home at 10.30pm on February 8 2023.
The father was awake, heard the car slamming into kegs behind the garage door and ran out to find it ablaze.
“It was only due to his quick-thinking and to the actions of him and his wife that a disaster was averted.
“The young children were ushered out the house in their nightwear.
“The court heard their horrified screams when they they were confronted by the fire.”
Judge Brown said the male used his own car to ram the burning vehicle away from the house.
“Of most significance is the psychological harm in terms of the distress caused to the family.
“The victim impact statement of the female articulates the harrowing ongoing impact on her and the children, who no longer feel safe in their own home.
“The potential for greater harm here was very significant and the consequences could have been catastrophic.
“It was borne of a desire for revenge on the male householder. You hired your accomplice and disdainfully said ‘I’ve got some junkie boy to do it.’ You acted as the getaway driver.”
Reape was jailed at the High Court in Dundee after a jury found him guilty of the attempted murder of the family in their home.
He was also found guilty of trying to pervert the course of justice by forcing his ex to provide him with an alibi and pinning the blame on Lawrie.
Lawrie was found guilty of endangering the family’s lives and Judge Brown told him: “You went to the petrol station in a stolen car and bought the petrol he [Reddington] used, while trying to disguise yourself.
Third man jailed
Counsel Andrew Crosbie, for Reape, said: “It was fortunate for all parties involved that the harm caused was not greater than it was, due to the quick-thinking.
“Clearly this was a continuation of bad feeling between the parties.”
Counsel Dale Hughes, for Lawrie, said: “It is perhaps fair to say things did get out of control from what he envisaged. He knew there was to a criminal enterprise setting the property alight.”
The court heard Reape had decided to wreak vengeance on the family after discovering his partner had been involved with the male householder.
Reddington previously pled guilty to a single charge of culpable and reckless conduct to the danger of the lives for the role he played in the plot.
Lord Arthurson jailed him for seven years and said: “Your criminal conduct was at the very highest end of the spectrum of conduct which can be characterised as culpable and reckless.
“A considerable amount of planning was involved in this crime.
“Indeed, your criminal conduct that night could quite easily have resulted in the deaths of some or indeed all of the family of five, including three young children.”
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