'Rioter Boasted About Starting Croydon Fire'

A man accused of starting the fire which destroyed a 144-year-old family business during the London riots boasted about causing the blaze, a court has heard.

Gordon Thompson, 33, told a local resident that he had started the blaze as he jogged away from the House of Reeves furniture shop.

"As the defendant was jogging towards him, to the utter amazement of Jonathan Davis the defendant boasted, 'It's me, I did that, I burned Reeves Corner'," prosecutor Oliver Glasgow told the jury at the Old Bailey.

The blaze at the furniture shop, which had stood at the site for over a century, was so fierce that houses on the other side of the street caught fire and tram lines in the road burned.

Thompson, of Waddon Road in Croydon, was the first into the building after rioters smashed through its windows, the prosecuting lawyer said.

He allegedly stole a laptop from the premises and, as he left, set fire to a sofa in the window with a borrowed lighter.

"On leaving the store, he asked another of the rioters for a lighter and, as soon as he was given one, went back to the shop and set fire to a sofa inside the shattered window," Mr Glasgow added.

"The ensuing fire razed the building to the ground. Such was the ferocity of the blaze that embers and heat from the flames set fire to property on the other side of the road and numerous residents were forced to flee their homes for their lives.

"Indeed one young woman became trapped inside her flat and was forced to jump from a first-floor window into the arms of rescuers waiting below."

Gordon Thompson is on trial for violent disorder, burglary of Reeves, arson with intent to endanger life and arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, on August 8.

He has denied all the charges, but has admitted burglary of the Iceland and House of Fraser stores that evening.