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An arsonist given a second chance when he appealed against deportation went on to set another fire at the hostel he was staying in, a tribunal has heard.
British chef John Dodsworth was convicted of endangering life by wilfully setting fire to a couch at a boarding hostel less than a year after he was granted residence.
He will now be deported following his two-year, nine-month jail sentence, with the Immigration and Protection Tribunal agreeing he risked causing a ‘potential catastrophe’ if he remained.
It previously decided to let him stay, so he could have contact with his daughter and to get help for alcoholism and mental health issues.
The 49-year-old’s deportation at that stage was suspended for three years if he committed no further offences or parole breaches.
The former UK teacher started to re-offend seven months later, making fake calls and shoplifting, before committing another arson.
“The boarding house at which the respondent was residing (and where he lit the fire) had eight residents,” the tribunal heard. “The fire was lit by him on or about 2 March 2024, and he handed himself in to a police station the following day.”
His lawyer said he would face a ”very grim and dark future’ if he was deported, which would cut him off from meaningful contact with his daughter.
“The respondent does not believe that he is a criminal but, rather, that mental health issues get on top of him and he does things without thinking,” the tribunal recorded in its decision. “When so overwhelmed, he is not in a frame of mind to consider consequences. He greatly regrets putting the other residents at the boarding house in danger, and knows how important it is for his mental health issues to be managed.”
A psychologist reported Dodsworth posed a low risk for re-offending, but not if there were an acute mental health deterioration.
“When distressed, the respondent is likely to behave in a manner that seeks help and attention, but which puts himself and potentially others at serious risk. This underlies his fire-setting. Without appropriate monitoring and support, such behaviours could reasonably be expected to reoccur.”
The tribunal said, despite concerns over his suicide risk and his staying in touch with his daughter, the danger of further fires was too great to give him a third chance.
“The tribunal places significant weight on the degree of risk of serious harm to innocent members of the public because of the nature of the respondent’s repeated offending. He has acknowledged setting a fire in a public building (in other words, a building to which other members of the public have access) in the United Kingdom in the past, though he was not punished, making his most recent offending the third occasion on which he has committed arson in public premises.
“Put bluntly, a fire in a public building, particularly one in which people are living and sleeping, has a strong potential for terrible loss of life.”
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