A MAN facing an indefinite prison sentence for a revenge arson attack has a string of previous convictions for terrifying crimes, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Christopher Legge could receive what is effectively a life term when he is dealt with next month for setting fire to a Darlington flat with its occupants inside.

Legge wanted to strike back at a teenager who would not be his girlfriend when he set fire to the front door of her mother’s home at 12.30am, as she slept.

Only the quick-thinking of a neighbour who tackled the blaze and stopped it trapping Tracie Hudson and her partner in the upstairs flat saved their lives.

A judge is now considering a sentence of imprisonment for public protection because of the 29-year-old’s obsession with fire, and previous convictions.

In 2003, Legge, then 21, of Barden Moor Road, Darlington, threatened to kill a vulnerable young mother, stab her daughter and burn down her house.

He was given a 12-month community punishment order and made the subject of a restraining order banning him from approaching the woman.

The court heard he verbally abused the woman on a number of occasions and even threatened to stab her young daughter, before killing her.

The woman was left so distraught, she was prescribed anti-depressants and had to have a personal attack alarm installed at her home.

The harassment went on for four months after Legge – a friend of the victim’s brother who had been living at their home – was asked to leave.

In 2005, Legge and his brother, Daniel, were given restraining orders and fines for repeatedly harassing and assaulting a former friend.

In 2009, Legge and two brothers – Daniel and Simon – threatened a neighbour with sticks and a plank of wood following a dispute.

He will be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on November 11 after being convicted of arson with intent to endanger life on June 14.

The court was told he piled rubbish and cardboard at the door of Ms Hudson’s flat, in West Moor Road, and set fire to it after falling out with her daughter, Abigail Noble, 19.

A fire investigator and the police officer who led the investigation said Ms Hudson, 39, and partner Clare Richardson, 35, could have been killed.

The front door was the only way in and out of the firstfloor property, – other than a 9ft drop from a balcony.