Man who caused gas blast that destroyed partner’s house jailed for 11 years

A man who blew up a terrace house by causing gas to leak from a pipe and setting fire to a chair after his partner kicked him out has been jailed for 11 years.

Paul Solway was having a “meltdown” when he caused the explosion at his partner Joanne Waterfall’s home in Alvaston in Derby on the evening of 10 June last year.

Video footage released by Derbyshire constabulary captured the moment the front of the house was blown into the street towards a passing car.

Waterfall “walked away with one outfit” while thousands of pounds of damage was caused and two neighbouring properties had to be demolished.

Solway, 58, admitted six counts of damaging property being reckless as to whether life was endangered, relating to six houses, at a hearing in January.

The defendant, of no fixed address, appeared at Derby crown court on Wednesday by video link from HMP Nottingham, wearing a green T-shirt and a white bandage around one arm.

After the sentencing, Waterfall said: “I have got nothing. I have had to start off from absolutely zero. I walked away with one outfit and that was it.”

Speaking about Solway’s sentence, she added: “In my eyes, I think it should have been more. Eleven years for six houses. It’s nothing, isn’t it? I’ve never had an apology from him. He’s got no remorse.”

She said she believed he had wanted to get back at her and had “plotted” the crime.

Sentencing Solway, who suffered serious burns and was put in a medically induced coma after the blast, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “The effects were devastating. The front wall of your house had been blown out into the street.

“People have lost a lot of money, their savings. They are now, some of them, reliant on council-provided accommodation.

“What you did in the end was you affected your community, your own little community on that street. Not one of them escaped the consequences, really, of what you did that night.”

Prosecutor Paul Raudnitz KC said Solway had been having a “meltdown” and was punching a garden fence before the explosion, when he told a neighbour he was “going to be dead by tonight”.

Waterfall had already left the house and told Solway he needed to move out, which made him “very upset”, the court heard.

He disconnected a pipe before setting a chair in the kitchen on fire which ignited the gas, Raudnitz said.

The barrister said Solway came out of the rear of the property after the blast, adding: “His hair appeared to be burned off fully. It was obvious he had been in close proximity to the explosion.

“While treated with oxygen, he told officers it was gas and he would turn it off in the basement. The defendant also confirmed it was just him and the dog in the property.”

Summarising a statement written by Waterfall, Judge Smith said: “Everything she owns is now gone, lost to the explosion and subsequent demolition. She didn’t have home insurance so now she has no house.”

The court heard that another homeowner has been in a “really dark place” since her house, which had been in her family for four generations, was partly demolished.

Other neighbours suffered thousands of pounds of damage to their houses and cars, the court heard.

The judge made Solway subject of a restraining order which prohibits him from contacting Waterfall.

DC Shaun Carter, of Derbyshire police, said: “Solway’s decision to cut this gas pipe left him in hospital but also caused distress and devastation to other members of the community in Derby.

“Almost a year has passed since this incident yet many families are still dealing with the impact of his reckless and dangerous actions.

“I know that no sentence can give these people back what they lost, particularly those who lost their homes, but I hope that knowing he is now behind bars for some time will help them to begin to look to the future.”