A woman and a child were trapped in a Dundee flat after a man set fire to boxes directly outside her front door.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard John Robertson, 55, set the fire to “send her a message”.
The court heard the woman had moved into a flat in Douglas two weeks before the offence.
She left a number of boxes outside a storage cupboard belonging to her flat, which was situated on the landing.
Robertson demanded she move the boxes, claiming they were a “fire hazard” and when she failed to do so he moved them in front of her door and set fire to them with a lighter.
Fiscal depute Trina Sinclair told the court Robertson shouted aggressively at the woman, demanding that she moved the boxes in February last year.
She said four days later, the woman’s landlord attended and tried to explain that the woman needed the boxes but Robertson “slammed the door in her face”.
The fiscal said: “The woman left her property at 4.15pm that day and returned an hour later with a child and the boxes were still in the same place.
Shortly before 8pm that evening she heard lots of banging on the landing but she didn’t think anything of it.
“At 8pm she was in the living room and became aware of the fire alarm sounding.
“She went to her front door and could smell smoke.
“She looked through her peephole and saw the landing was filled with smoke. She opened the door and saw the boxes burning directly in front of her front door.”
Unable to get out of the flat, the woman contacted the fire service who advised that she should make her way into a back room and wait for them to arrive.
During a police interview, Robertson said: “I came back from the pub and there was a box on the stair.
“I’d had a few pints and I got angry and lit the box with a lighter to send her a message.
“Once it went on fire I immediately got water and put it out.
“The fire service turned up, there was smoke everywhere, I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Robertson, of Douglas Road, admitted one charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at a property on Douglas Road in February last year.
He was ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work within a nine-month period.
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