Two guilty of GBH by setting man on fire in Fossway, York

Judge Simon Hickey ordered a prison psychiatrist to assess Joshua Anthony Strickland, 31, and Robinson Peter Fitch Binks, 27, before he passes sentence. He said he wants to know how dangerous both men are.

He said their crime was one of the most “shocking” crimes he had experienced in his many years on the Bench and as a barrister.

Both men went on the run for several days after they set the third man on fire and were arrested after a major manhunt in York last April.

A jury at York Crown Court heard that Strickland and Binks turned up at the Fossway flat where the victim was just after midnight on April 19. 

They went into the living room and “without warning or indeed explanation”, said prosecution barrister Brooke Morrison, Strickland began spraying the third man with lighter fuel or flammable liquid.

Police at the scene of the attack (Image: Staff)

The liquid hit him on the back and side and was set alight. As the third man fled from the defendants, they followed him round the room, laughing with each other and continuing to spray lighter fuel onto him.

The victim ran out in the street screaming and the defendants left as a neighbour poured water over the man on fire.

Strickland, of no fixed address, and Binks, of Clarence Street, York, both denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and each claimed they had not gone to the flat. They produced alibis at their trial.

But the jury of seven men and five women convicted both unanimously after nearly three hours in retirement.

During the trial, the judge, unusually, closed the public gallery after jurors told him they felt intimidated by members of the public attending the trial.

Following the verdicts, Judge Hickey immediately ordered a psychiatrist at the prison where both are on remand to examine the pair and decide if he considers them dangerous.

He told York Crown Court he would consider passing a life sentence on their return to court.

“To set fire to another human being in the way these two have done is a shocking crime,” he said.

He also said he would consider an indeterminate sentence. 

After the two defendants had been taken back down to the cells, he told the jury that under either a life sentence or an indeterminate sentence, the defendants will not be released until the Parole Board decides they are not a danger to the public.

Both men acted with disbelief when they heard the unanimous verdicts. Both have previous convictions, and Strickland had previously pleaded guilty to damaging the victim’s father’s car with a pole that he used as an offensive weapon some days after the lighter fuel attack.

York Crown Court heard both defendants knew the victim but were not friends.

The third man had been at a friend’s home when he was attacked. He was treated at hospital for “relatively superficial burns and blistering”. He also suffered some skin loss to his back and shoulder.