Dedicated York soldier Shaun Storey was today starting two years in jail, branded an arsonist, after his passion for a policewoman ruined his life.

Stuart Storey: jury took almost four hours to find the Green Howards corporal guilty of arson after a trial which lasted three days

The 35-year-old senior corporal in the Green Howards also lost his shining army career when a York Crown Court jury convicted him unanimously of arson and criminal damage at the flat of his ex-lover Debra Launder.

The court heard that the man who saved the lives of two police officers in Northern Ireland could not accept that his relationship with the policewoman was over and she had a new boyfriend.

Only good luck prevented the fire he started spreading to the homes of other people in the same building, Judge Peter Charlesworth said.

"Anyone who torches someone else's house - in effect, tries to burn it down - and does such serious damage as a fire can has to go to prison for a long time," he added, jailing Storey for two years.

Storey, of Hamilton Drive East, York, had denied both charges.

The court heard how Miss Launder had moved to Boroughbridge without telling Storey her new address or phone number after he rang her weekly following the break-up of their relationship.

But he got both the address and phone number and phoned her until she told him not to because she had a new boyfriend.

So, knowing she was out, he splashed peach-coloured paint over her window and set fire to her door, burning it and part of her hallway.

"It is quite clear that he behaved aberrantly in this moment," his barrister Nigel Shepherd told the court after the verdicts.

There was no possibility of him repeating his actions.

"No other member of the public will be at risk, or this police officer at risk from him."

As a soldier, he was held in high regard, said Mr Shepherd.

Storey's trial was delayed for six months so he could serve in Kosovo.

The jury took nearly four hours to return their verdicts at the end of the three-day trial.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.