Groom Arrested For Setting Wedding Reception Hall On Fire After Wedding
England: A bridegroom who set fire to his wedding reception venue after a row over the bar bill has been jailed for six years. Property developer Max Kay had been celebrating his marriage last summer when he began arguing with staff at the Peckforton Castle Hotel in Cheshire, who refused to extend his bar tab.
In the early hours of the following morning, as his own wedding guests slept overnight at the hotel, Kay, 37, took a cigarette lighter from an unsuspecting barman and set fire to curtains in a drawing room of the 19th century Grade I listed historic building. CCTV footage showed the groom entering and leaving the room.
The fire developed into a major blaze causing £6m damage. Kay’s new bride and her family were sleeping directly above the room where the fire was started
Nobody was injured but the hotel was evacuated with almost 200 guests – including 11 children – gathering in the grounds wrapped in blankets and towels. Kay, of Waylands Drive, Hunts Cross, Liverpool, was arrested after owner Chris Naylor examined the hotel’s CCTV. Mr Naylor said that even as the fire spread the bridegroom was behaving in a “cocky” manner demanding tea and coffee for guests until the police arrived when he became “sheepish”.
Kay, who pleaded guilty in December to a charge of arson that was reckless as to whether life was endangered, gave no reaction as he was sentenced. The court heard that he was under “enormous financial pressure”, had a big ego and wanted to impress friends and family with a swanky wedding – though his property business had failed in the economic crash.
This guy ain’t fooling me… the key line in this story is “Kay’s new bride and her family were sleeping directly above the room where the fire was started”… You can draw your own conclusions….
