Teenager charged over fire at school

Mar 28 2008 by Katie Bodinger, South Wales Echo

A TEENAGER is due to appear in court charged with deliberately setting fire to a city school.

Cantonian High School in Fairwater, Cardiff, was closed to students after the blaze in October, which caused £250,000 worth of damage.

The 19-year-old will appear at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court on April 10 charged with arson.

Shortly after the incident, police issued an image taken on CCTV of a youth who was captured breaking into the school near 1.30am, the time the blaze was lit.

The fire badly damaged a number of classrooms and wrecked teaching aids that staff had spent a lifetime collecting.

Hundreds of pupils turned up for the start of school only to be turned away by teachers as police investigated the source of the blaze.

Some students were forced to miss lessons during the clean-up operation as a staggered timetable was introduced to cope with the incident as well as temporary classrooms being brought in.

The appeal by police attracted a good response from the public who provided officers with information.

A spokeswoman for South Wales Police said that information from members of the public had led to the charges being brought.

“We had quite a number of calls following our appeal in the Echo,” she said.