Northants man who took vodka-fuelled car journey north before setting fire to his bedroom is spared further jail time

On June 5 this year Sean Moore had also taken "30 to 40 tablets of medication,"before attempting to make the long drive north, he said, to visit his son.

But after colliding with a parked lorry on the way, he returned back to his mother's house at Lyveden Road, Kettering.

Sentencing him at Northampton Crown Court yesterday, recorder Timothy Green, said: "You returned home and you barricaded yourself in your bedroom and set fire to your room.

"Police attended and their lives were put at risk by doing so."

Moore pleaded guilty to arson and the driving offences at a hearing earlier this year and has been on remand since June 5.

But recorder Green did not wish to extend the 25-year-old's spell in jail. He instead imposed a 12 month suspended sentence and ordered the defendant to carry out a 60-day rehabilitation program.

"This has the character of an act of desperation," the recorder told the court. "Rather than a vindictive action."

Moore had been suffering from depression, which he has been seeking help for.

Defending for him Caroline Bray, said: "There is a really good program of support being offered by probation. He just needs to grab this opportunity with both hands.

"Mr Moore really does feel thoroughly remorseful for what happened."

"Hopefully he is unlikely to trouble the courts again."