A depressed man who torched his uncle’s house in a suicide bid after being beaten up twice has been jailed for three years.

Richard Culshaw, 35, started three separate fires in the terraced house and turned the cooker on before fleeing the blaze.

Firefighters were quick to the scene and the flames did not spread to neighbouring homes in Leaf Road, Eastbourne.

Lewes Crown Court heard single Culshaw had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after being attacked in London and badly beaten up last year.

Minutes before starting the blaze he had been set upon by two men in Eastbourne and was at such a “low ebb” he decided to end his life on July 11.

Culshaw, who admitted arson, also admitted fraud after stealing his uncle Ian Culshaw’s chequebook and trying to cash a cheque for £975.

Jailing Culshaw for three years, Judge Guy Anthony told him: “I’m prepared to accept you did what you did because you had been assaulted, you were feeling depressed and you had it in your mind to end your life.

“But to set fire to a house in a mid-terrace in three places and to leave the gas on leaves a massive risk and puts in real danger the lives of others.”