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SICKO'S FIREBALL ATTACK
Maniac blew up neighbour’s home in terrifying gas blast attack in twisted revenge plot over noise dispute
A MANIAC blew up his neighbour’s home in a near-fatal gas blast plot — after a row over noise.
Robert Russell, 60, sent Bill Mazs scrambling in terror after the shattering blast knocked him to the floor and engulfed his clothes and hair in flames.
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A court heard the maniac uncapped a gas pipe supplying his own council flat and the victim’s home upstairs following a dispute about noise.
Twelve hours later, unsuspecting Mr Mazs switched on his cooker for breakfast, igniting the fumes and triggering an explosion that ripped through their two-storey block.
Witnesses told how the blast sent a huge fireball shooting past their window as debris flew in all directions in Whitburn, West Lothian.
Neighbour David Agnew, 37, told The Scottish Sun: “I had just dropped my wee girl at school. I came home and had just got inside and the whole thing went up.
“If I had been two minutes later I would have been standing right beside it and I’d be a goner.
“My wife said it sounded like a truck going past the front door. This huge fireball came right by the window and she felt the heat.
“Bill was standing at the end of the drive basically smoking — I don’t know how he got out that house alive.”
The High Court in Livingston heard Mr Mazs, 56, ran to douse himself in the shower then staggered into the street with his dog Misty, who “squealed” in terror.
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In harrowing scenes, brave residents including David raced to dad-of-two Mr Mazs’s aid and called 999 before he was rushed to A&E with extensive burns.
Prosecutor Bill McVicar KC said Russell’s sick plot was carried out with “utter disregard for the consequences for the property and his neighbours and endangered lives”.
In the month leading up to the blast, Russell twice complained to West Lothian Council about “noise nuisance from a neighbour”.
Then, the day before the horror, he suddenly advised the local authority to ignore his gripes — and declared he was giving up his tenancy.
Mr McVicar went on: “At around 10pm on December 7, 2020, the accused removed the plug from the three-part fitting of the gas pipe leaving the pipe open with gas flowing from the end.
“At some point thereafter he left the property.
“The removal of the plug sealing the pipe caused a major gas leak in his own flat and the flat of his neighbour directly above. This led 12 hours later to a substantial gas explosion ignited by Mr Mazs when he turned his gas cooker on to make breakfast.”
Mr Mazs, who has since died, suffered “severe injury, permanent disfigurement and permanent impairment” in the 9.15am horror.
The block was so severely damaged it had to be demolished and will cost the council around £300,000 to rebuild.
Mr McVicar told the court of the mental torment the victim endured before his unrelated passing last year.
He said: “Since the incident, the complainer reported in a police statement that he feels like his life has been destroyed.
“He was referred to a trauma- focused clinical psychologist.
“The complainer suffered flashbacks, nightmares and panic attacks. He had flashbacks to his flat with the flames rippling up the walls and he is trying to escape from the flat.”
He was later diagnosed with PTSD that caused him to live a life “constantly on edge and a bag of nerves, continually in fear‘’.
Russell pleaded guilty to endangering his neighbours’ lives by his reckless and culpable conduct.
He was bailed until sentencing next month after his lawyer Iain McSporran KC told the court he cares for his cancer-stricken mum.
Judge Lord Lake warned the fiend: “A custodial sentence must be considered.”
Paying tribute to Mr Mazs, neighbour David told how he and others ran to the stricken man’s aid and even booted down the door to Russell’s flat unaware he was long gone.
The traumatised dad added: “The whole incident is still stuck in my head three years later. Mentally and physically it damaged us and my wife didn’t want to come back here. It torments us to this day.
“Bill was a lovely guy and everybody knew him.
“He isn’t here any more and I don’t know if it was because of what happened here that was playing on his mind, if it got too much.
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“Russell deserves to go to jail for a long time.”
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