A WOMAN had to flee her flat in the dark because her downstairs neighbour deliberately started a fire in his bedroom, York Crown Court heard.

Philip Standfast, prosecuting, said the woman lived above Gavin James Sullivan in a block of flats in Tang Hall.

At 6.30pm on February 24, she heard glass smashing downstairs and smelt burning.

"She grabbed her dog, phone and personal items and evacuated her flat," said Mr Standfast.

Downstairs Sullivan had smashed his kitchen window to get out of his own flat.

Once outside, he had briefly returned inside before coming back out.

For Sullivan, Kevin Blount said: "He went back into the building to make sure no-one else was at risk.

"He feels a great deal of remorse he put anyone else at jeopardy."

He had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital shortly before the arson.

Sullivan, 42, now of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

He was jailed for two years. He had no previous convictions.

You are a risk to the public at the moment," Judge Simon Hickey told him.

"A number of professionals have tried to put forward alternatives to custody. Sadly, I am afraid, there is no alternative."

He said the woman had told police she had been "shaken up" by the incident.

"She had had concerns because of your erratic behaviour in the past," the judge said. "You had been heard screaming and shouting."

Mr Standfast said the woman phoned the fire brigade as soon as she was outside. Firefighters put out the blaze.

Smoke from the fire had damaged all the woman's belongings.

A fire officer's investigation revealed that the fire had been started in the mattress of Sullivan's double bed.

Sullivan admitted to police that he had set fire to a piece of kitchen roll and used it to ignite the mattress.

He had disabled his flat's smoke alarm before he began.

Mr Standfast said there had been a "significant risk of serious physical and psychological harm" caused by the fire.

Mr Blount said of Sullivan: "He was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the offence."

A week before the fire, he had been an in-patient at a psychiatric hospital having been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

He had made a number of attempts to discharge himself before being formally discharged.

The fire-starting had been a result of his mental health condition, though it had not involved him starting fires before, said Mr Blount.

After he had started the fire, he had then tried to put it out himself.

He had thought he had been successful and had had a telephone conversation with a member of his family.

But then he realised the fire was still going and got out of the building.