WATCH: British Transport Police Release Footage Of Woman Jailed For Nottingham Station Fire
14 August 2019, 11:26 | Updated: 14 August 2019, 12:41
Gemma Peat admitted to starting a major fire in the ladies toilets at Nottingham station.
The British Transport Police have released footage of the woman jailed for arson over a fire at Nottingham station.
Gemma Peat admitted to starting the blaze in the women's toilets on 12 January 2018.
The fire caused £5.6 million of damage to the Grade II listed railway station. The fire spread to the station's link bridge, but defects in the building's construction stopped it going further.
It took more than 100 fire fighters over 27 hours to stop the blaze.
The court was told that Peat caused the fire when she accidentally setting light to a sanitary bin after entering the toilets to take crack cocaine and heroin.
The blaze was only discovered at 6:18 that morning when a worker went into the toilets to change the bins.
In Peat's sentencing, Judge Gregory Dickinson QC told Peat the fire "must have been smouldering as you left".
"You should have realised but you might not have done in your drugged-up state," he said.
"This fire was started recklessly, thoughtlessly but not deliberately. The prosecution accept you didn't intend to cause damage or harm."
"In fact, you weren't thinking anything except about taking drugs."
Peat, who has committed 108 other offences including shoplifting and possession of a knife, told police that other drug users were in the station at the time.
The prosecution argued that these were simply attempts to "deflect blame from her to others".
The court was also told that the station toilets had a foot of highly flammable polystyrene on the wall supporting it, and that builders had "cut corners" in its construction.
Judge Dickinson also stated that staff should have been quicker in raising the alarm.
