Sex offender moved after vigilantes torch property
VIGILANTES are believed to have torched the home of a Doncaster sex offender last night.
Within hours of publicity about the conviction of a 27-year-old man for making child pornography on his computer, his terrace house in Bentley was ablaze.
Police today sealed off the property in Asquith Road to carry out an investigation and Craig Neil Markey has been moved to another address for his own safety.
It is understood Mr Markey was advised to move out earlier in the day after newspaper coverage of his crimes but he declined the advice.
He was not at home last night when intruders kicked in every door and started a series of fires on both floors of the house.
A neighbour raised the alarm just before 11pm and when Adwick fire crews arrived they found the downstairs front room well alight with thick black smoke pouring from it.
Two crews wearing breathing apparatus entered the building to douse the flames and found four separate fires. On the ground floor there was one in the front room and kitchen and upstairs there were fires in a bedroom and a cupboard.
It took almost two hours to extinguish the blaze and use powerful fans to ventilate the building.
Neighbours on both sides were evacuated for their own safety but the firefighters were able to prevent the flames spreading.
A fire officer said they understood the house had been occupied by a man whose court case had been reported in the media yesterday.
Markey was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register by Doncaster magistrates for seven years after admitting 16 counts of making indecent photographs of a child.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing 1,113 indecent photos and five indecent videos of children. The magistrates gave him a 16-week jail sentence, suspended for two years.
A police guard was placed on Markey's house last night and fire investigators and scenes of crimes officers were due to go inside this morning in the search for clues.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Police were called to a house fire on Asquith Road in Bentley, Doncaster. There was no-one inside the property at the time and no-one was injured in the blaze.
"There will be an investigation continuing today into the cause of the fire, but the incident is being treated as suspicious."
No-one has been arrested in connection with the arson attack.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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