Police release picture of a jailed South Yorkshire offender who helped an arsonist torch a house door

A repeat-offender has been jailed after she filled a petrol cannister with fuel for an arsonist who torched a house door and terrified the occupants.
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Sheffield Crown Court heard on February 2 how Tracey Barry, aged 34, of Roundwood Court, Worsbrough, Barnsley, admitted assisting an offender after the front door at the couple’s property on Middlewood Drive East, Middlewood, Sheffield, was set ablaze.

Judge Peter Kelson QC told the court Barry attended a petrol station just after 2am, on February 15, 2020, and bought petrol and admitted filling a cannister on behalf of another person linked to the arson attack.

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He added that a man and a woman in the property were woken by the smell of petrol and thick black smoke came through the door which had been set ablaze.

Pictured is Tracey Barry, aged 34, of Roundwood Court, Worsbrough, Barnsley, who was sentenced to four years of custody after she admitted unlawful wounding, perverting the course of justice, and assisting an offender who was involved in an arson attack.Pictured is Tracey Barry, aged 34, of Roundwood Court, Worsbrough, Barnsley, who was sentenced to four years of custody after she admitted unlawful wounding, perverting the course of justice, and assisting an offender who was involved in an arson attack.
Pictured is Tracey Barry, aged 34, of Roundwood Court, Worsbrough, Barnsley, who was sentenced to four years of custody after she admitted unlawful wounding, perverting the course of justice, and assisting an offender who was involved in an arson attack.

Judge Kelson said the man opened the door and black smoke and flames came in the hallway before he extinguished the fire.

He told Barry: "Had the fire not been detected it would have spread into the hallway and blocked the entrance to the stairs.”

Since the arson attack, the woman described herself as a “complete nervous wreck”.

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Judge Kelson said: “She lives in fear every single day and cannot sleep. She has to have people stay and she has anxiety which is so bad she thinks she’s going to have a heart attack.”

Her partner questioned why those responsible would set fire to a home while people were asleep inside.

Ian Goldsack, defending, said Barry had performed a limited role after she had been asked by a man to go to the filling station to get petrol and fill the cannister and there is no evidence she went to the address.

Barry, who has previous convictions, also pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding after she stabbed a man in the back on June 24, 2020, in Barnsley after an argument among a group of people who had been drinking.

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Daniel Penman, prosecuting, said there had been an argument about the whereabouts of the complainant’s phone and the dispute spilled into the street.

Mr Penman added the complainant was stabbed in the back by Barry when he walked away.

Judge Kelson told Barry: “During the course of one of those arguments you took it into your own mind to move behind your victim and to stab him in the back.”

The court heard the injury was not severe and it was described as a small superficial laceration.

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Mr Goldsack said Barry could not recall the weapon she used but she reacted after a woman among the group had been injured.

Barry also admitted perverting the course of justice in June, 2020, after she agreed to have an electronic tag fitted to her ankle which should have been fitted to another woman.

Mr Penman added she also pretended to be that woman when police were called to the stabbing.

Mr Goldsack said Barry had been intimidated into wearing the tag and she had been drinking heavily at the time of her offending and she has had mental health difficulties.

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Judge Kelson sentenced Barry to four years of custody and imposed an indefinite restraining order to protect those affected by the arson attack.

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