Benefits street star julie young's house firebombed by drug addict

Liam Mandeville, now 21, was paid to carry out two chilling attacks on properties. He was paid £1,000 to petrolbomb the first house in Lime Trees Close, Middlesbrough, at 2am on November 16,

2013, when George Sanderson was asleep on the sofa and his daughter Jade, 21. was in bed upstairs. They fled as the kitchen and lounge were engulfed in flames. Three months later he was

hired to drive out Julie Young and her 14-year-old son Reagan, who both appeared in Channel 4 hit show Benefits Street. He flung a firebomb through the lounge window of their home in

Stockton-on-Tees at 9pm on February 14 last year. Ms Young grabbed Reagan, who had cerebral palsy, and escaped with him, his two round-the-clock carers and her daughter. She told police

later how the attack terrified her. She said: "Since this our world has changed. "We live in constant fear. This was a violent, cowardly act, and we have had sleepless nights ever

since." Mandeville, of St Catherines Court, Hartlepool, handed himself into Peterlee police station after the attacks. Today at Teeside Crown Court he was jailed for six years and eight

months after admitting arson. During sentencing, Judge Simon Hickey told Mandeville: "The potential of killing somebody was high, and you have pleaded guilty to two very serious

offences." Martin Scarborough, defending, said Mandeville was in debt and he had been offered a large financial reward to firebomb the houses. He added: "He was told that the

intention was that these people would be scared off, and he got involved. "When he heard about the severely disabled child in the second house he could not live with himself and he

handed himself in. "He would never have been charged and he has shown remorse."