Families living on a leafy north-east London street were enjoying a typically quiet Wednesday afternoon when a series of loud explosions and the unmistakable stench of burning sparked panic.
Startled residents peered out of their windows and spilled out onto the street as they witnessed bright orange flames and acrid smoke engulfing a three-storey flat before their eyes.
Living on the basement floor was a local Hackney hairdresser and on the top floor was a Jewish family with a young baby.
To their horror, it was the man living between them who had deliberately started this raging blaze, sparking ‘distressing’ scenes as neighbours desperately tried to flee for their lives.
As the flat was quickly transformed into a huge inferno, the Jewish family was forced to throw their baby from a window on the second floor – while others jumped in a last-gasp bid to survive.
Ian Pitkin, 64, torched his own flat in Newick Road, Hackney, and neighbours breathed a sigh of relief as widower, pictured scowling with his top off after his arrest, was put behind bars this month.
Sentencing Pitkin to life in prison with a minimum of six years at Wood Green Crown Court on September 6, Judge Daniel Fugallo said the attack was ‘was motivated by, and demonstrated, a hostility towards people of Jewish faith’.
Pitkin had earlier pleaded guilty to arson with intent to endanger life, four counts of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and three counts of having an offensive weapon in a public place.
Fortunately, the baby survived unharmed the near-fatal fire. The horrific blaze did, however, leave five people with injuries, including a woman who fractured their hip after jumping from a window to escape.
Pitkin was arrested shortly after emergency services swooped on the fire at Pitkin’s ground floor flat at 12.45pm on March 20.
When he was arrested while receiving medical attention for his own injuries, police said that he made threatening and ‘allegedly antisemitic’ comments.
Detectives found that his car was packed with a number of jerry cans filled with petrol, as well as as horrifying arsenal of weapons.
Officers found four air weapons, three knives and two hammers.
When visited the flat this week, it remained a scene of devastation. The windows and front door have been boarded up, but the walls are stained black and the inside and the smell of burning still lingers.
Families in the multi-cultural area where there are Muslim and Jewish homeowners living next to each other are served a daily reminder of the fire as they walk past and see the gutted flat, with baby toys, including a baby bouncer and a pair of fairy wings, strewn out in the front garden.
Residents this week recalled the ‘traumatising’ fire six months on and painted a picture of the local that came so close to causing the death of innocent neighbours.
They described him as an ‘odd’ and ‘somewhat strange’ character who had spiralled into a depression.
He had told neighbours that he was being evicted by his landlord, believed to be Jewish, because the lease of the flat was in his wife’s name and she had recently died after an illness.
A local newsagent, who did not want to be named, said of Pitkin: ‘He was one of my customers. I wasn’t shocked by the character he was. I think he served time before.
‘His wife was ill and after she died he deteriorated and didn’t have anywhere to live. I knew he was looking for a place. The flat was under her name.’
He and his wife have since seen the Jewish family taking burnt items outside of the house.
James Watson, a 20-year-old student, told how his parents were at home when they heard an explosion from two doors down.
He said: ‘My parents told me they were doing their own thing and they heard this loud bang and looked out the window and saw the flames.’
Speaking about Pitkin, he said: ‘I used to see him about. He seemed quite odd. He almost killed seven people so I think it’s fair [ that he’s been jailed].’
Mr Watson said the street held a party a few weeks ago, where some of the victims came and thanked everyone for their support.
‘They were very happy, they came and brought food to the street party and came to say thank you,’ he added.
Speaking about the day of the fire, Mr Watson said: ‘We had a builder at the time and he jumped all the fences to save the baby.
‘He was working here. He was in the room at the top of the stairs, looked out the window, saw it, grabbed a ladder from the garden and jumped two fences and put the ladder up against the building and helped them out.’
Mr Watson, like several other neighbours, said that Pitkin’s wife had recently died and her name was on the lease, so he was being evicted.
Mabel Brown, 70, who has lived on Newick Road for 20 years, told that her hairdresser was living in the basement floor of the flat with a young baby.
‘I was shocked anyone came out alive,’ she said. ‘It really shocked my hairdresser so bad… she’s not herself.’
Ms Brown added: ‘[Pitkin’s] wife had died and the man was suffering from depression from that. At the end of the day even during that time, people said he got notice to leave the house and he got depression.
‘He lost his wife, he was suffering depression, you will feel lonely. Did he not try to seek help? He could have cost a lot of lives.’
A local dog walker named Tristan was walking along Newick Road when it burst into flames.
He told : ‘I was walking past, it was all on fire, people were hanging outside, everyone was really distressed saying someone set it fire because he’s been kicked out of his house.
‘He was getting evicted and sort of went ‘I can’t live here so no one else can’.
‘There was a baby, but they got it out. It was really shocking.’
Matthew Field, 35, told how his flatmate ‘heard an explosion and then something hit his window a second later, like a piece of glass, from across the road’.
‘He was quite rattled,’ he added.
When asked if he knew Pitkin, he said: ‘I know some people lived here before me, they were aware of someone living there being somewhat strange.
‘They said that it must have been the odd guy that they’d known about.’
Mr Field said it was ‘unsettling’ to find out that the fire was motivated by a hatred towards Jewish people.
Jewish campaign groups condemned the violent act and blasted the lenient minimum prison term.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism told : ‘This is a new low point in our criminal justice system’s failure to deal with surging antisemitism in the UK.
‘Ian Pitkin was sentenced to life in prison for setting fire to a Jewish family’s home, forcing them to jump from windows, miraculously avoiding loss of life. However, due to the pathetic leniency of our system, his ‘life imprisonment’ could last as little as six years.
‘In Britain you can celebrate Hamas terrorists and avoid prison, or nearly burn a Jewish family alive and get a sentence not dissimilar to sentences recently handed down to those convicted of inciting violence on social media.
‘It seems that our criminal justice system’s fierce determination to deter racist criminals completely disintegrates when the targets of the racist criminals are Jews.’
Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway, policing lead for Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: ‘Pitkin’s actions endangered the lives of his neighbours, who were forced to flee their homes in fear for their lives. Several victims were forced to jump from their windows and a family even had to throw their baby down to waiting relatives below.
‘The damage to the building speaks for itself and it is remarkable that nobody was more seriously injured. However, the psychological impact was well evidenced through the victim impact statements submitted to court, with victims reporting hearing explosions as the fire took hold in the property below them.
‘My officers have worked for many months to investigate the motive for this incident and gather evidence to explain Pitkin’s actions. This incident was pre-planned, rather than spontaneous, with Pitkin purchasing jerry cans and petrol in the week prior to the incident, in addition to having previously acquired numerous air pistols and bladed weapons.
‘We believe the arson and planned action was linked to a housing dispute and Pitkin indicated a clear intention to harm others, beyond those injured in the fire, who were connected with that housing dispute.
‘In doing so we were able to evidence the fact that he expressed clear anti-Semitic sentiment on several occasions and the Crown Prosecution Service invited the court to treat racial and religious hostility as an aggravating factors.’