A 53-year-old man has been jailed for an arson attack at the home of his pregnant former girlfriend.

David Westerman had drunk 15 pints of beer when he pushed an armchair against Claire Grimshaw’s front door and set it alight, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Westerman was today locked up for two and a half years and Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC made an order “without limit of time” preventing him contacting Miss Grimshaw.

Westerman, of Cemetery Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to reckless arson in January.

His case had been adjourned until today for the preparation of probation service and psychiatric reports.

Prosecutor Neil Clarke said Miss Grimshaw, who was four months’ pregnant with Westerman’s child, went to bed at her home in Compton Road, Dudley Hill, Bradford, at 11.30pm on June 22 last year.

She was woken by Westerman banging on the front door and shouting through the letterbox.

Miss Grimshaw told police she heard a bubbling sound and smelled smoke.

She saw a blazing armchair pushed up against her front door and Westerman running away.

Police officers and a fire crew arrived quickly and Miss Grimshaw escaped unhurt out of the back door.

The court heard that the heat of the blaze cracked a window.

Westerman’s solicitor advocate, Alan Bridger, said his client had never recovered from the death of his baby son in 2000.

He was upset about the final break-up of his relationship with Miss Grimshaw and had been drinking heavily. He did not think Miss Grimshaw was at home when he started the fire.