A drunken arsonist who started a fire at a council-owned block of flats – to get re-housed - was jailed for four-and-a-half years on Friday.

The blaze happened in April 2016 at Llangefni, Anglesey.

But Nicholas Walker, now 51, wasn’t sent a postal requisition to attend court until October 2018, Caernarfon crown court heard. He had been jailed in July 2016, too, following child porn offences which came to light when his laptop was seized following the blaze.

Judge Timothy Petts imposed a 14 days consecutive sentence for failing to attend court in January.

The judge said Walker broke into an unoccupied flat using a fire extinguisher and started a fire near a gas pipe. “Fortunately no explosion happened,” Judge Petts told him. “Nevertheless, what you did was obviously a very dangerous thing. It seems to have been an attempt to get yourself re-housed.”

Walker was linked by glass fragments, DNA and his internet searches about fires.

He’d denied responsibility at first but eventually pleaded guilty to an arson charge.

Defence barrister Dafydd Roberts said there was a “significant delay” before charges were brought. “He’s not in the best of health,” counsel added.

Prosecutor Simon Mintz said six flats had been occupied at the time of the arson but the flames were in one which had been unoccupied.

The fire service had been alerted by an alarm and found a hole in a toughened door window. As firefighters left the flat - inside which the kitchen floor had been flooded because a water pipe had melted - they saw Walker in a corridor outside his own home.

He wore sandals with soot or glass on his socks, and he began smoking a cigarette after being given oxygen.

Police were informed and examination of his laptop indicated a particular interest in fires, Mr Mintz said.

The prosecutor said in 2000 Walker had started a fire at a community centre.