A Welsh rapper has been jailed for firebombing an innocent woman's house just days after rapping about committing the same crime against his rival.
Michael Jordan Athernought, who goes by the name Ath, has been sentenced to nearly 10 years behind bars after the attack took place on 16 November, 2021.
Days before he threw the homemade explosive towards the home, Athernought had issued a series of threats towards a rival rapper Ricky Williams, otherwise known as Official Chronic, after he posted a diss track about Athernought.
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The pair are said to have known each other since their teenage years, but drifted apart in recent times.
On 13 November, Athernought, 25, posted a clip on Facebook in which he said he would 'burn [Williams'] house to the ground', adding: “War means war.”
However, when he went to carry out the threat Athernought accidentally targeted another home located close to Williams'.
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The prosecutor in the case, Ian Wright, described how the woman who lived in the home was woken by the sound of her smoke alarm going off and went downstairs to see the glow of flames through the glass panel of her front door.
Realising the threat of the fire, the woman went to wake up her teenage son, who had been sleeping downstairs after suffering a broken leg.
At the same time, a neighbour in the area heard the noise of a bottle smashing and the sound of running footsteps. Neighbours were able to extinguish the flames before they spread.
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Police went to Athernought's home at 5am that morning and found an 'overwhelming smell' of petrol, as well as a green plastic petrol container, a lighter, and burnt pieces of towel which was later matched to material found at the scene.
At Athernought's sentencing this month, Judge Paul Thomas QC described the rapper as an arrogant and immature man who thought of himself as a 'psuedo-gangster'.
He told Athernought he could not imagine a 'more pathetic, childish reason' for carrying out the act and described the video he'd posted days before the attack as being 'as graphically threatening as it was pathetically childish'.
Athernought, who pled guilty to the crime, was given an extended sentence of nine years and nine months, comprising six years and nine months in custody with a three-year extended licence period.
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The 25-year-old can apply for release after serving two-thirds of the custodial element of the sentencing, but granting his release will be down to the Parole Board.
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Emily Brown