3:00pm Tuesday 10th November 2009
A MAN who firebombed the homes of two detectives, then turned informant to help jail the gang boss behind the attacks has been released from prison.
Supergrass Jason Eagles, 25, carried out the attacks on the officers’ homes in January 2006 on the orders of 42-year-old Wayne Taylor.
Taylor, a suspected drug dealer, was originally arrested, but was not charged until Eagles came forward with new evidence two years later.
Last week, Taylor was jailed for 18 years after being twice convicted of arson with intent to endanger life at the Old Bailey.
On Friday, Eagles returned to court to be resentenced under a deal struck when he agreed to give evidence against his former boss.
Judge Martin Stephens QC revoked Eagles’ original sentence, which would have seen him serve at least six-and-a-half years before even being considered for parole.
Instead, the bomber was given a five-year determinate sentence– effectively turning him loose there and then, since he had already served time in custody.
Referring to Eagles’s testimony, Mark Dennis, prosecuting, said: “It was vital evidence without which Wayne Taylor would not have been brought to account for orchestrating the two attacks.
“He has now been in custody for three-and-a-half years. His family have had to be afforded protection measures also.”
Taylor, of Merriles Crescent, Holland-on-Sea, ran a car dealership in Clacton. He ordered the firebombing of the officers’ homes in revenge for a police raid on his home and business premises just before Christmas, in 2006.
He was angry because, during the raid, detectives rooted through presents under the father-of-two’s Christmas tree so asked his right-hand man, Angelo Debono, to organise the arson attacks.
Det Insp Michael Ornellas, who signed the warrant to search Taylor’s property, was awoken at 5am on January 28, 2006, when two milk bottles full of petrol were thrown through the window of his Tendring home.
His wife and three sons, aged 25, 20 and 15, only escaped because he was quickly able to put out flames on the stairs blocking their escape.
Det Sgt Martin Brough, who supervised the return of Taylor’s property after the raid, had just brought his new-born daughter home from hospital.
He and his wife fled the house with their two day-old baby and their 22 month-old son after firebombs rebounded off the double-glazed windows.
Debono, 32, and Jason Eagles, 23, were originally jailed in May 2007 for their part in the attacks.
It was only after Eagles offered to tell detectives who was behind the firebombings that Taylor was brought to trial at the Old Bailey.
The gangster was already serving a prison sentence for money laundering when he was convicted of arson last week.
However, the jury cleared Taylor of two counts of attempted murder.
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