A man who set a deliberate fire in Lincoln County Hospital’s A&E causing almost £2 million of damage has been jailed for six years and nine months.
John Gillon Watson, 57, was also given the maximum extended licence period of five years on his release from jail for the charge of arson with recklessness as to whether life is endangered.
Lincoln Crown Court heard how Watson, of Vicarage Court, Sleaford, had entered the hospital as a patient before setting the fire in a room just off the main A&E department in the early hours of the morning on 29 March 2022.
During the investigation, CCTV footage showed a man wearing a distinctive black jacket with Elvis on the back – who was later identified as Watson – in an area which was being engulfed with smoke before he was moved by fire fighters. There were no other people captured on CCTV in the area at the time of the fire starting.
Watson was arrested around 11am that day following a swift response from detectives in Lincolnshire Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
He has remained in custody since his arrest and charge. The investigation also involved arson investigators from Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, forensic investigators, and the hospital’s estates and facilities team.
The fire led to the emergency evacuation of the busy A&E department – including sick and injured patients – and carried a huge risk of igniting medical oxygen piping running throughout the hospital. If that had ignited, large parts of the hospital would have been badly damaged. It also led to the instantaneous loss of a CT scanner at the hospital, a machine which can be vital for someone with a serious injury, meaning the potential to treat significant traumas at the hospital was severely impacted.
The Trust declared a major incident as a result of the fire, with patients diverted to other departments at Lincoln County Hospital, as well as other hospitals. In total, the A&E department was closed down for 48 hours, damage to diagnostic equipment meant that more than 3,300 patient appointments for diagnostic tests were delayed.
Six crews from Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue were required to tackle the fire. Once extinguished, it was found to have caused extensive damage to the imaging room housing the CT scanner and MRI machine, a mobile ultrasound machine, a computer, bandages, and other equipment, as well as soot and smoke damage to entire department and neighbouring areas.
Detective Sergeant Dave Patten from Lincoln CID led the investigation. He said: “This was one of the most serious and reckless cases of arson we have ever dealt with; the potential for harm should that fire have escalated is unthinkable.
“The impact on the community and the hospital teams has been profound, with patients having to be diverted to other treatment centres, and clean up and repair work impacting the use of a busy emergency department.
“This would have been very frightening for staff and patients, and I hope that today’s sentencing goes some way to providing some comfort that justice has been served against the individual responsible.”
Watson admitted the arson on 20 January.
