A DRUG dealer tried to kill his girlfriend by pouring petrol on to their kitchen floor and lighting a tea towel before throwing it to start a flash fire.

Glyn Dorrington headbutted the woman when she tried to stop him setting their terraced house ablaze at Pritchard Terrace in the Phillipstown area of Caerphilly.

He began the fire on January 7, 2021 after brutally assaulting her and falsely accusing her of cheating on him.

Dorrington had held her down on a bed before punching her in the head and he later held a knife to her neck.

“She was the focus of his rage,” prosecutor Laurence Jones told Cardiff Crown Court.

“It appears it was a revenge attack.

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“The defendant started pouring petrol from a 25-litre drum on to their kitchen floor and used a tea towel to set the large pool of petrol on fire.”

The blaze lasted for 50 seconds before Dorrington, who was high on drugs, put it out.

His now ex-partner said: “He makes my skin crawl.”

The terrifying incident took place after the defendant had been released under investigation three times by the police on suspicion of dealing heroin and crack cocaine and an assortment of class C drugs.

The court heard how Dorrington had recruited the woman and another man to sell drugs from the home they shared at Fisherman’s Walk in the Bulwark area of Chepstow.

This address was raided three times between June and December 2019 with police finding drugs with a potential street value of more than £4,000.

They also recovered £2,700 in cash.

On April 27, 2020 Dorrington, the woman and the man living with them were pulled over by the police in a Mini car in Chepstow.

Officers found methadone and class C drug etizolam inside the vehicle as well as a phone containing drug related messages.

The defendant pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to supply, possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply and possession with intent to supply class C drugs.

Dorrington, aged 31, latterly of Richmond Road, Six Bells, Abertillery also admitted arson with intent to endanger life and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He had 17 previous convictions which included dangerous driving in a Monmouth children’s playground in March 2019.

Julia Cox, mitigating, said of the arson: “It was he himself who extinguished the fire.

“It was neither sustained nor prolonged – it was a spontaneous action committed on impulse.”

His barrister told the court her client’s health was “deteriorating” and how the defendant has struggled with Crohn's disease since childhood.

Judge David Wynn Morgan told Dorrington: “You subjected your victim to a terrifying ordeal of violence.

“You started a flash fire and when she tried to stop you, you headbutted her to the forehead.

“It was an intention to endanger her life and the effect on her has been profound.

“You committed the offence in a terraced house where other people and property were potentially in danger.”

The defendant was jailed for 12 years which was made up of a nine-year jail term plus an additional three years on extended licence.

An indefinite restraining order was imposed for him not to contact his victim.