Richard Pentreath, 64, from Cheltenham, set fire to a property in North Wales in the mistaken belief it was the home of his accuser
A former professional chess player, who went on the run when he was accused of rapes and burned down the wrong house when he tried to trace a victim, has been jailed for 35 years.
Richard Pentreath, 64, from Cheltenham, set fire to a property in North Wales in the mistaken belief it was the home of his accuser.
But in fact the house that he targeted in the seaside town was the wrong one – after he relied on Google Maps to find his intended victim’s address.
Pentreath, a businessman who dealt with capital finance and investment, poured paraffin through the letterbox of the house in October 2016 before going on the run.
Inside the property was the mother of a four-year-old child, who was woken by a sound from downstairs and saw something coming through her letterbox.
Outside she came face to face with the man, who walked away. A paraffin bottle with his DNA was found nearby.
A few days earlier, Pentreath, also known as Hilary Clifford Thomas, had sparked a massive nationwide manhunt after he went on the run during a trial for historical rape offences.
He was found guilty of those offences, which included grooming and repeatedly raping two girls in the 1970s and indecently assaulting a boy in the 1990s, in his absence.
Pentreath, who as Hilary Thomas wrote the chess book The Complete Games of Mikhail Tal in 1980, began raping his primary victim when she was 11, telling her they were making love.
She told detectives that, when she tried to stop his weekly attacks, he became violent. He went on to abuse a young boy aged about 13 in the 1990s.
During the later trial at Mold Crown Court, the jury heard how he had spent years trying to track the woman down, even travelling abroad to find her.
He admitted carrying out the arson attack but claimed he did not intend to harm her or kill the woman, arguing instead that he wanted to scare her ‘into telling the truth’.
He was found guilty at Mold Crown Court in May, and Judge Niclas Parry remanded him in custody and ordered a psychiatric report.
Sentenced at Manchester Crown Court, he was given 35 years.