A PSYCHIATRIC patient has admitted starting a fire and making nuisance calls as cries for help. 

Martin Fox-Cooper, aged 45, of Longford Lane, Kingsteignton, had only been out of prison for a few months when he carried out both offences in April of this year.

He has previously been sent to jail for carrying knives in two incidents where he set out to get himself arrested as a way of trying to access care for his mental condition.

Fox-Cooper admitted arson and the persistent use of public communications to cause annoyance.

The first offence was committed when he set light to a rubbish bin at Paignton on April 13 this year and the second over the following four days, when he made repeated calls to seek help.

Recorder Mr Richard Shepherd adjourned his sentence until next week after being told there is a complicated psychiatric background to the offences.

Miss Emily Pitts, mitigating, said: ‘When he was sentenced last November, there was a 20-page psychiatric report and a probation pre sentence report. This is a case which is going to require considerable time and consideration.’

Fox-Cooper was jailed for six months on November 2 last year because he fell foul of strict anti knife crime laws which impose mandatory sentences for those who are caught carrying a blade more than once.

He called the police on two different occasions to say he had the weapons and had been refused emergency help from the mental health crisis team.

He was arrested in the car park of Tesco in Kingsteignton in February 2018 and outside the Wetherspoons pub in Teignmouth in July 2018.

Miss Pitts told the earlier hearing that Fox-Cooper has been let down by the health service and his offences were both cries for help.

On the first occasion, he rang the mental health crisis team and gave up after being left on hold for more than an hour.

She said the only person who was at any risk of harm during both incidents was Fox-Cooper himself, and his possession of the knife.

She said: ‘It is important that he gets the care he so desperately needs and has a psychiatric assessment.’