AN elderly couple have spoken of the “hell” they suffered at the hands of the drunken lout who torched their £500,000 dream retirement home in North Yorkshire.

Matthew Watson, 21, set fire to Tony and Pauline Smith’s Grade II listed thatched cottage in Knaresborough while the pensioners were watching television inside. They are both in their seventies and were ill at the time.

Only when the electricity tripped did they realise the danger they were in when Mr Smith went outside to investigate and saw their roof engulfed in flames.

Sentencing Watson to an indefinite jail term at York Crown Court, Judge Stephen Ashurst said: “Mr and Mrs Smith had a very lucky escape fleeing from their home. The reality is an elderly couple could easily have died due to your callous and reckless act. The devastation caused to them is still of a very high order.

“Everyone values the sanctity of their home. For a couple in their seventies, the sudden and dramatic loss of everything they owned is something almost too unhappy for both of them.”

Retired businessman Mr Smith, 78, said: “He has ruined our lives. We lost our roots with our belongings, they are irreplaceable. But we have to look forward now.”

Retired nurse Mrs Smith, 77, said: “The judge was very fair and it means he won’t be able to do this again to anybody else for a very long time. But we have been to hell and back, he destroyed everything.”

Prosecuting, David Brooke said the couple bought the home in Knaresborough for £450,000 in 2006 and spent an extra £70,000 renovating it.

On Saturday April 11 last year, they were watching television as Watson, who had been binge drinking, held a cigarette lighter to their roof, which is next to a sloping road.

He had previously said: “I am going to set this …….. on fire,” and as he did so, he said: “This will be on the news.”

A week after their escape, Mrs Smith was diagnosed with cancer. They had to sell the ruins for £150,000, lost all their belongings, worth a total of £50,000, which included antique furniture, and are now living in rented accommodation. Watson, of Copt Hewick near Ripon, pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered and stealing lager when on bail. He must serve a minimum of three-and-a-half years before applying for parole.

Jon Gregg, for Watson, said his client was a “drunken wastrel” who recognised the full horror of what he had done.

His remand on custody was the first time he had been sober since his mid-teens.