Couple tell of shock to find their car burnt out outside Chester home

Mar 24 2011 by Rachel Flint, Chester Chronicle

A COUPLE whose car was attacked by arsonists while they slept have told how they heard explosions in the early hours.

At 2am on Sunday, Martin Shutt and his partner were asleep in their new house when they were woken by loud bangs and noises like gunshots being fired close to their window.

But thinking it was a bus backfiring the couple, who have only just moved into their house in Abbots Nook, Chester, went back to sleep, unaware arsonists had torched their car.

Alerted by a call from their new neighbours, the couple have spoken of their shock to find the windows smashed and the front of their car burnt out, showing the engine and wire hanging down.

Martin said: “I heard two loud explosions, at first I thought it was gunshots, but with the bus depot being on the other side of the road we just thought it was that. You do not expect it to be your car exploding.

“The first thing we knew of it was a neighbour calling us and asking us if we owned the silver vehicle at the end of the ginnel. The window was broken by the fire brigade who had been there in the middle of the night. They did not want to go knocking on people’s doors at that time in the morning.”

At 2.36am firefighters were called to the alley, which links Liverpool Road with Victoria Road, after reports of a car being set on fire.

Cheshire firefighters fought the blaze, which is thought to have been set by arsonists and which destroyed the front of the vehicle.

“I couldn’t understand it,” added Martin. “It is not like we have been here long enough to have upset anyone.

“The neighbours have told us that nothing like this has ever happened before. I didn’t think there was going to be any trouble here.”

Police are studying CCTV from the George and Dragon pub and the Northgate Arena in the hunt for the arsonists, who are thought to have been youths.

Anyone with information should call Cheshire Constabulary on 0845 458 0000.