Arsonist who threatened firefighters after setting Edenbridge home on fire is jailed
15:22, 05 July 2021
updated: 15:48, 05 July 2021
This is the moment police taser an arsonist who threatened to launch a hammer attack on firefighters after starting a blaze at a house.
Daniel Rutter, of Wellingtonia Way, Edenbridge, set fire to the ground floor of a property after a dispute with a woman he knew, causing £30,000 of damage.
Body warn camera footage of his arrest
The 48-year-old was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for the offences at the Nightingale Court, which is held at the Mercure Great Danes Hotel, near Maidstone.
Officers' body worn video shows them approaching the fire and Rutter brandishing the hammer. It is only when police move to the front of the house they were able to detain him.
He admitted arson, two counts of criminal damage and three counts of common assault against an emergency services worker.
At around 12.30am on Sunday, April 25, Kent Police and Kent Fire and Rescue Service were called to a fire at a house in Wellingtonia Way.
Rutter threatened to assault two attending firefighters, while clutching two hammers, before running back inside the burning building. He also used the weapons to smash a window.
The video, released by Kent Police, shows officers finding him in the burning ground floor, prompting the offender to run outside and swing a hammer at a constable. As he did this, a taser was deployed to bring him under control.
At this stage, the fire was then safely extinguished, with no-one injured as a result of the blaze. Extensive damage, worth an estimated £30,000, was caused to the house and two hamsters died.
A subsequent investigation uncovered he had been involved in a dispute with a woman, who is known to him, throughout the previous day.
This led to him heading to the home and using a cigarette lighter to set fire to the curtains in a downstairs living room.
Detective Sergeant Daniel Barker, from Kent Police, said: "Rutter’s actions were excessively violent and could have easily led to a person dying.
"He has shown himself to be a controlling man who subjected the woman to intolerable levels of abuse. Such behaviour shows he is a clear threat to women.
"In addition to this, the abuse he directed towards firefighters and our officers was completely unjustified and unacceptable.
"I'm pleased that he has been held to account and that a dangerous offender is now behind bars."
Rutter was additionally recalled to prison to serve a discretionary life sentence, imposed in 2000, for a serious assault committed outside of Kent. At the time, he was sentenced to a minimum of seven years, with a life licence also imposed.
