Arsonist jailed for torching ex-wife's hair salon

An arsonist who torched a hair salon belonging to his ex-wife out of "malice and spite" has been jailed for two years and eight months.

Martin Pearson, 55, set fire to the building in Woodditton, east Cambridgeshire, on the evening of 15 May.

Police said he was walking "angrily" near the building on Stetchworth Road prior to the attack at 19:20 BST.

Pearson, of King Street, Norwich, was sentenced at Huntingdon Law Courts having admitted arson and criminally damaging the salon multiple times in April.

He set a barbecue gas canister alight to carry out the arson after splitting from his wife in February, police said.

In total, Pearson caused more than £35,000 worth of damage to the salon.

Det Con Fraser Wilson-Dykes, of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said Pearson's behaviour caused "much harm" to the victim and her family.

"This has been a nasty ordeal for the victim who has seen her business severely damaged by an act of malice and spite," he said.

Pearson was also handed a five-year restraining order against his former wife.