A DRUG abuser who tried to blow himself up in his hotel room has been sent to jail for six years after he breached his probation order.

Paul Benns, 43, emptied the contents of 22 butane gas canisters into the small room before igniting a cigarette lighter in a bid to end his life.

He sustained 40 per cent burns in the blast and was in Frenchay Hospital in Bristol for two months.

In May this year he was put on a three year probation order after a conviction for indecent exposure.

But the order broke down as Benns continued to take butane gas and other drugs and failed to follow a course of treatment.

Marcus Davey, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court on Friday that Benns was staying at the Pines Hotel in Marshfield Road, Chippenham, in November last year. Just two days after Bonfire Night the proprietor was alerted when a fire alarm went off.

When he got to the first floor corridor at 9.30pm he found Benns slumped outside his room with his face and hair burnt. In the room he saw a small flame coming from the bed, which he quickly put out, and a number of butane canisters on the floor.

The force of the blast was strong enough to lift part of the ceiling and cause smoke damage and cracks to the masonry in the next door rooms. It also melted the shower cubicle and destroyed a sign in the corridor.

Benns told police he was trying to kill himself.

Mr Davey said: "He accepted he had caused the fire. He said he got gas canisters and emptied them out to cause the explosion. He hoped, he said, for an 'IRA-type explosion.'"

At an earlier hearing Benns, of no fixed abode, admitted being in breach of his probation order and pleaded guilty to arson, being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Sarah Regan, defending, said Benns was being bullied by other people in the hotel and, having had his benefit money stolen again, decided he would be better off dead.

Jailing him, Judge Tom Longbotham said he was concerned that Benns posed a serious risk of harm to the public.

He said there was a threat of him setting fires and as a sexual offender he also posed a risk.