A VIOLENT arsonist responsible for starting a blaze that caused more than £100,000 damage at York Hospital has been jailed - potentially for the rest of his life.

York Crown Court heard how flames a foot high leaped from Stephan Robert Yeomans' bedside unit at 4am in the sleeping Medical Admissions ward.

Simon Kealey, prosecuting, told how as staff nurse Nichola Burdett called for help, he stabbed her in the back, then screaming, ran down the ward upsetting trolleys and chairs.

Medical staff evacuated the five patients in his room, including a woman in her eighties and a nine-week-old baby and other patients in the ward, while security staff pursued and overcame the 57-year-old arsonist. He had a waiter's friend, a tool with a blade used for opening bottles, and a disposable cigarette lighter with him and told police he had been drinking heavily the previous day.

The cost of the damage "ran well into six figures", said Mr Kealey.

"It is plain from what I have read you do present a significant risk to others, both in relation to the fire raising and also in relation to your violent behaviour and to carrying of weapons," the Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Yeomans. He described Nurse Burdett as being "remarkably lucky" not to have received more injuries than a cut and bruising.

Yeomans, formerly of Bramham Road, Chapelfields, York, was jailed for life after admitting arson being reckless as to whether the lives of four women and the baby were endangered and causing actual bodily harm to Nurse Burdett.

He has previous convictions for robbery and violence and last November was jailed for four months after admitting sexual activity with a 15-year-old boy.

Mr Kealey said Yeomans was admitted to the ward late on September 15 for an alcohol-related illness. Just before 4am the next day, Nurse Burdett was doing her rounds when she spotted an orange glare from the doorway of the room where Yeomans was and investigated.

Defence barrister Alex Semple said Yeomans had few memories of the fire. He was a chronic alcoholic, who had taken a "cocktail of drugs" as well as drink that evening. The offence was not pre-meditated.

Because it was a "discretionary" life sentence, Yeomans can apply for parole after three years and 11 months, though the judge warned: "In my view you will remain a threat to the public for a significant time after that."

:: The army tank driver who went off the tracks

THE WORLD of hospital arsonist Stephan Robert Yeomans started to fall apart nearly 30 years ago when he left the Army after several successful years driving tanks.

He had joined up while still in his teens, seen active service and risen to the rank of corporal in the Royal Army Corps.

But while he was away from home, his first wife had had an affair and on his return to civvy street, he had difficulty adjusting to life out of uniform.

He turned to drink, and began the chronic alcoholism that was to prove his downfall. He embarked on a criminal career of violence, threats of violence and drink-related offending that culminated in him being jailed for five years for robbery. He also committed an indecent assault.

By 2002, he was into the most stable period of his civilian life. He lived with his terminally-ill mother, caring for her daily while holding down a part-time job in the community learning support office, training to help others with literacy problems. But he lost the job when funding for the post ran out.

When his mother died, Yeomans found himself on the streets because they lived in a council house and she was the tenant. He was no longer in good health; he had an enlarged heart and a damaged liver, and he was drinking heavily again.

In early September, after a binge drinking session, he collapsed in the street and was rushed by ambulance to York Hospital where he was treated and discharged. But on September 15, he was back in hospital - with devastating results.

Updated: 09:54 Tuesday, June 14, 2005