Скачать или смотреть CCTV shows Derby arsonist Johnny Brady heading out to torch city school

A teenager has been handed a hospital order after admitting starting seven fires across Derby in late 2020.

Johnny Brady was tracked down by detectives after three months of incidents that left two schools and a Grade 1 listed church destroyed.

The first two incidents took place within two days of each other – with the first fire gutting St Mary’s Catholic School on Saturday 3 October and the second destroying Ravensdale Infant School on Monday 5 October.

There then followed four incidents between 6 October and 16 October where fires were set at the Orangery Café in Markeaton Park, St Mathew’s Church in Darley Abbey, Mackworth Community Centre and St Paul’s Church in Quarndon causing minor damage to the buildings.

The final attack took place at All Saint’s Church in Mackworth. The building, largely built in the 14th and 15th centuries, was destroyed by the fire that was started by Brady in the late afternoon of Thursday 3 December.

Superintendent Sarah McAughtrie, who led policing in the city at the time of the arson attacks, said: “The series of fires had an enormous impact on the Derby community and left those who live in the city in real fear.

“As a parent, I know what schools mean to children and the destruction of two much-loved buildings was a huge loss to everyone involved with them. It also further disrupted the education of those pupils at a time when they were just getting back to a sense of normality after the previous months of home schooling.

“The only fortunate part of this devastating series of arson attacks was that, miraculously, nobody was seriously hurt in the fires – but that was certainly more luck than judgment.”

The first six incidents left the investigation team with limited leads but, through CCTV trawls around the half dozen sites they knew the perpetrator was using a bike or scooter to travel to and from the attacks.

The breakthrough for the case came when an officer was sent to take a statement following the sixth blaze – at St Paul’s Church in Quarndon, where fire damage had been discovered.

As the officer finished taking a statement from the vicar, Brady appeared at the churchyard and, after giving an implausible reason for being at the location of the suspected arson attack, was arrested.

A subsequent search of the then 17-year-old’s house led to the discovery of a mountain bike and an e-scooter, as well as a phone and a computer.

Digital forensics experts reviewed the computer finding that Brady had made internet searches following each of the incidents – hunting for news items and social media posts about fires in the areas – just hours after the fires had been set.

Detectives then spent painstaking hours reconstructing the CCTV images of the bike seen in the areas of the arson incidents using the mountain bike that had been seized from his home – with specific details of Brady’s bike matching the one seen on footage from the nights of the arson incidents.

With Brady released on police bail, and the investigation ongoing, no further arson incidents linked to Brady took place until the afternoon of Thursday 3 December when a fire engulfed the All Saint’s Church in Mackworth.

Brady was immediately visited by officers due to the similar circumstances of the previous incidents and he was arrested wearing the same grey hooded top and black trousers as a figure captured walking towards the church less than two hours before the fire was discovered.

Today, after admitting setting all seven fires as well as a further charge of burglary in relation to damage caused to the science room at Murray Park School on 1 October 2020, the 19-year-old was handed a Hospital Order under the Mental Health Act 1987.