A man who said voices in his head told him to start a fire has been sentenced.
Tony Joyce, 44, who has schizophrenia, had earlier pleaded guilty to arson in a public hallway of a Connect Housing flat complex in Trinity Street, Huddersfield, in June.
Joyce, who lives in one of the flats, had pleaded guilty at the same time to a separate charge of committing a public order offence, in which he caused a disturbance outside Cafe Cali in The Piazza in Huddersfield.
Andy Wills, prosecuting, told Kirklees Magistrates’ Court Joyce “set alight a poster which scorched a carpet and wall.
“He told police that he started the fire because voices in his head told him to do it.
“He committed the public order offence on May 8.
“Witness Gemma Wilson, who was at the cafe, told police she saw Joyce muttering to himself.
“He threw a chair in her and her son’s direction but she does not believe it was thrown deliberately at them.
“She said she tried to calm him down but he then told her he wanted her and her child dead.
“In interview he told police he wanted the human race dead. He also told them he didn’t remember the incidents.”
Mitigating, Paul Whiteley said that Joyce had admitted his guilt at the first opportunity and asked magistrates to read a pre-sentence report.
Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order with a 12 month non-residential mental health treatment plan.
Joyce was also ordered to pay an £85 surcharge and £85 court costs.
