Two women have pleaded guilty to arson after being caught on CCTV urinating on a homeless man’s items before setting fire to them.
One was sentenced to four months in prison and the other awaits sentencing. Everything the homeless man owned was destroyed.
They walked away laughing
Arsonists Nicola King, 23, and Jerely Evans, 25, started the blaze that destroyed everything that homeless man Roy Ransom owned.
Portsmouth magistrates court heard that Evans and King taunted Ransom, initially being ‘nice to him’ after approaching him outside a row of shops. They gave him £5, but then started to verbally abuse him and even stole his mobile phone.
These cruel actions caused Ransom to walk away from the thugs.
CCTV shows that Evans then urinated on Ransom’s bedding before attempting to set fire to it for some time, while King holds Evan’s handbag and watches. They are then seen walking quickly away laughing, while the Ransom’s possessions go up in smoke.
The only possessions he had
Richard Withey, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said:
The victim was approached by both defendants who were initially nice to him.
They then hurled abused at him and took his mobile phone. Having made him feel uncomfortable, the victim then left.
CCTV recorded Nicola King urinating on the victim’s bedding. She then provided a lighter to Jerely Evans so that she could set fire to the bedding, destroying the few possessions that he had.
The defendants soiled and destroyed the only possessions that the homeless man had, leaving him without any bedding or a blanket.
So they bullied him, stole his mobile phone, urinated on his bedding and then burned everything he owned.
‘A mild intellectual disability’
King’s defendant, Ayisha Robertson, said that the incident had a ‘very real impact on the victim.’
She also said that her client had a low IQ within the range of ‘a mild intellectual disability’ which often made her ‘compulsive’ and made it ‘difficult for her to understand consequences.’
King and Evans both pleaded guilty to arson. Evans has served a four-month-sentence for arson and criminal damage. King will be sentenced on 27th October.
Barbaric
It is extremely hard to understand how these women could act this way towards a fellow human being. Even if somebody is unable to understand the consequences of such vile actions, they should still have understood how cruel it was.
They committed a barbaric act towards a vulnerable man who was in need of empathy and support. Instead he was degraded and bullied.
Hopefully, their inhumane actions will encourage others to act with love towards those that are forced to live on the streets, rather than with hatred.
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