Derbyshire man set fire to flat when when police tried to arrest him on suspicion of possessing a gun

Shaylon McCalla refused to let them in when they knocked on the door of his shared flat on Oxford Street, Ripley, at 9.45am on September 29, last year, said prosecutor Miles Gosnell.

They heard muffled voices but received no answer and when they tried to force the door, a 'clearly distressed' McCalla shouted: "I swear I am going to make you shoot me."

He threatened to set the house on fire and kill himself, and when officers smelled smoke they forced their way inside and used Tasers to subdue him.

They extinguished a burning coat that he had set on fire in the hall and he was arrested at the scene.

Nottingham Crown Court heard he has nine previous convictions for 21 offences, with five for violence and five for weapons. The offence put him in breach of a suspended sentence imposed at Derby Crown Court in June, 2022.

Shannon English, mitigating, said someone who wasn't suffering from mental health problems ‘would have behaved more lucidly when the police came to his door’.

A psychiatrist has provided a ‘tentative’ diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, and Ms English said stress triggered McCalla’s reaction.

On Tuesday, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said the warrant had been served ‘for a firearm that didn’t exist,’ adding: “Quite where the information for that came from we will never know.”

He said McCalla had ‘a wild and unlawful childhood, becoming involved with gangs and firearms,’ but was doing his best to keep out of trouble since the suspended sentence.

“The last thing you needed was the police battering on your door when you had done nothing wrong,” he said. “I do not know on what basis they came.”

McCalla, aged 23, formerly of North Street, Heanor, admitted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Judge Rafferty ordered the suspended sentence to continue and handed McCalla an 18-month community order, with 30 rehabilitation days.

“You have said repeatedly you want to put your past behind you,” he told McCalla. “You will not get another chance.”