A MAN from Holyhead started a fire at the flat where his late father lived, weeks after he died at the property in “awful circumstances”.

Kyle Berry, who served in the Armed Forces, left the owner of the property “outraged” by the amount of “devastation” which the fire caused.

Yesterday (October 23), Berry, 36, of Longford Road, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for the same time period, at Caernarfon Crown Court (sitting at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court).

He initially denied a charge of arson, but changed his plea to guilty at a later date.

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Prosecutor Catherine Elvin told the court that, at about 3am on January 15, 2022, firefighters were alerted to an incident at a flat on Church Terrace, which Berry’s father had rented until his death in December 2021.

Officers attended, and found Berry by an upstairs window of the flat; he later had to be forced out of the property after refusing to leave and barricading himself inside.

Following his arrest, Berry told police he was “blind drunk” at the time, fell asleep after smoking a cigarette, and was woken by the sound of the smoke alarm before trying to put the fire out with water from a kettle.

Though, an fire investigation report found that it was started deliberately, and had caused smoke damage to the entire property.

Susan Diggle, the flat’s owner, said her “life was turned upside down” by the fire.

Mrs Diggle added that her “dream” of running the florist underneath the flat has been “taken” from her, and has not worked at the shop since April 2023.

She estimated that her total rent loss has amounted to £16,000 since the fire, adding that she and her husband have since made the decision to sell the whole building.

Defending Berry, who had six previous convictions for 17 offences, Dafydd Roberts said his client was “in a very dark place” at the time, after his father’s death “struck him very hard”.

But Mr Roberts added: “More than two-and-a-half years down the line, he’s doing everything he now can to address those issues”.

He said Berry has made “dramatic changes” in his life in the intervening period, and added that he is “climbing out of that hole” that he found himself in.

Sentencing, Judge Nicola Jones acknowledged the “most terrible circumstances” in which Berry’s father had died at the flat weeks earlier, and accepted that he was at his “very rock bottom” at the time of the fire.

But she told Berry: “You placed yourself in serious danger by being in those premises, and taking that action.

“In reality, I think you were so intoxicated that you probably can’t remember your specific actions on that night.”

Berry was also ordered to complete 15 days’ rehabilitation activity as part of his suspended sentence.

Reserving his case to herself, Judge Jones told Berry: “I’ll probably send you to prison” if he breaches his order.

She added to him: “Rome was not built in a day, and I didn’t expect you to get out the other end without some slips from the path.

“But you’re doing everything you can to rehabilitate yourself, with an enormous amount of support.

“Your mental health at the time, along with your drinking, was directly linked to causing that crime… (but) I have no doubt that there is genuine remorse here.

“This is a lifeline; this sentence. This will give you a chance to turn things around.”