A drug addict arsonist has been allowed to return to the scene of his crime even though he could face a jail sentence in a few weeks’ time.

Mohammed Aslam, 42, has admitted starting a blaze at his home in Washington Street, Girlington, but after a judge was told his psychosis was almost certainly the result of drug use he was bailed so that a pre-sentence report could be prepared by the probation service.

Aslam was being treated at Lynfield Mount hospital, but when Judge Colin Burn agreed to release him on bail he walked out of the dock at Bradford Crown Court after collecting his belongings, which included a television set.

At an earlier hearing Aslam pleaded guilty to a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered, arising out of a fire at his home on May 31 last year.

His barrister Emma Downing told Judge Burn that recent psychiatric reports had indicated that as he was no longer taking unlawful drugs he did not have any condition which fell within the Mental Health provisions.

“I am, with some hesitation, going to grant you bail,” Judge Burn told Aslam. “The offence that you pleaded guilty to is a serious one and it is inevitable that there will be some form of custodial sentence imposed.”