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Odd jobber gasses guests
By JOHN COLES
A CRANK rigged up a pipe system and tried to gas guests in a holiday cottage next to his home, a court heard yesterday.
Richard Pearce, 58, feared the visitors were part of a plot to force him and his mum from their property.
The odd job man ran a network of pipes from his loft into the rafters next door and connected them to a butane gas canister.
While holidaymakers slept, he used a tap to waft several two-minute bursts through a hole in their bedroom ceiling.
One couple left after smelling the gas — which is highly flammable and can cause asphyxia.
A second couple complained to landlord Guy Piercy, who knew his row of three cottages had no mains gas and grew suspicious.
He called police and an engineer from gas firm Transco found the pipes in Pearce’s loft in the hamlet of Acton, near Worth Matravers, Dorset.
Paranoid Pearce — who lived in the middle cottage — feared guests next door had been wafting incense into his home, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.
He also thought they were causing a draught and a “clicking noise” last July so he responded with the “tit-for-tat” move.
Pearce, who now lives in Wool, Dorset, pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawfully administering butane with intent to annoy.
His lawyer said he suffered a temporary mental illness.
Pearce was given a two-year community rehabilitation order and banned from Acton for two years.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004152433,00.html