WATCH: Moment teenagers flee after throwing firework into pensioner’s home causing fatal blaze
This is the moment two teenagers fled after a firework attack that led to the death of a pensioner in his own home.
Listen to this article
Nathan Otitodilchukwu, 18, and a 16-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, enacted a prolonged campaign of harassment against Robert Price, 76, in the years leading up to the attack, the Old Bailey was told.
The pair of teenagers threatened to “torch” the pensioner before punching a hole in his window and pushing a firework into his home.
Shocking footage shared in court shows the teens running after hurling the explosive fireworks into Mr Price’s home.
The pair had admitted manslaughter and were sentenced on Monday by Judge Rebecca Trowler KC.
Otitodilchukwu was jailed for six years and the youth was handed a custodial sentence of two years and eight months.
Judge Trowler told the younger boy: “Mr Price lost his life in circumstances of a planned attack where I am sure you intended some harm, and in any event it was highly reckless as to the risk of harm.”
She noted the older defendant had “poor impulse control” and a “lack of appreciation of the impact on others”.
However, his was a “determined effort to carry out this offence and cause harm just short of serious harm”, she said.
The judge added the youth may have been “encouraged” by the older boy, who had a history of criminal behaviour.
She added he had shown remorse in the wake of the crime.
The court was told how Mr Price’s terraced home in Dagenham, east London, caught fire in July 2024, with black smoke filling the house before he could be saved.
“Robert Price was killed in a fire which was started at his home address by the two defendants who smashed a window at his property and threw a firework inside,” the court heard.
John Shoesmith, a friend of the pensioner, told the court Mr Price was afraid to leave his home because “kids would disturb him.”
Mr Shoesmith described him as socially awkward and said his lack of social skills and poor hearing meant some people found him “hard to get along with”.
The harassment included acts of criminal damage to his house, the court heard.
According to Mr Shoesmith, Mr Price’s windows were regularly smashed by a number of the local children, to the point that he had his downstairs windows boarded up.
“In Mr Shoesmith’s words, this would happen all the time and they would make his life hell,” Ms Farrelly said.
Just three days before Mr Price’s death, a brick had been put through his window.
CCTV footage from the day of the fatal blaze shows Otitodilchukwu, who was living in care, met up with the 16-year-old boy.
The two boys gleefully filmed themselves putting the firework through the old man’s window.
At around 5.30pm, they walked towards Mr Price’s house with the 16-year-old holding what was believed to be a firework.
Doorbell footage showed Mr Price open the door slightly and say something, before the 16-year-old ran away shouting “he saw me fam” shortly before the youths returned and carried out the attack.
“A loud bang can be heard, followed by high-pitched laughing as the group run away,” the prosecution said.
A few minutes later, smoke could be seen coming out of the window, before flames and black smoke engulfed the room, the court heard.
A neighbour who had seen the flames knocked on the door and briefly spoke to Mr Price, but his “responses became less clear”, the court was told.
The neighbour tried to get into the house to rescue Mr Price, but the door was locked, Ms Farrelly said.
Firefighters were later able to get inside and put out the fire, but Mr Price could not be saved.
When Otitodilchukwu, of Romford, returned to his care home that evening, he spoke to a support worker and said, “I’m going to do 20 years in jail” and “Don’t check for news about what happened in Dagenham”, the court heard.
A little later he also told his support worker: “I was drinking with my friends on Saturday and we were shooting fireworks.”
A few days later, he asked a woman if she had heard about the fire, before telling her, “If anyone asks, don’t say I was in Dagenham,” the court was told.
When asked why, he said: “Maybe I started the fire with a firework.”
He went on to say that he was drunk with two of his friends, that he had put a firework through a letter box and that it was funny.
Otitodilchukwu was arrested the same day and the 16-year-old was arrested the following month.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Price’s family said he was a “kind” and “generous” man, and described the “suffering” that he must have endured.
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Clarke, of Scotland Yard, said: “This is a deeply tragic case, which saw a man lose his life in his own home after a completely mindless and reckless act had devastating consequences.
“The young defendants will now have to face the consequences of their actions by spending time in prison. I hope Robert’s family can take some solace in this outcome and am pleased the defendants spared them the ordeal of a trial. I would like to thank the London Fire Brigade for their initial response and the fire investigation which followed.”