A SPURNED husband who drove 150 miles to torch his wife's love nest has been spared jail after a court heard he had been "humiliated".

Melvyn Ball left paraplegic love rival John Rivers trapped in his blazing home after pouring petrol through the letterbox of his home in Lincolnshire.

Mr Rivers, who was alone at the time, could not get out and survived only after emergency services raced to the scene.

When Mrs Bell, 56, later checked her voicemail she heard his desperate screams for help as fire raged around him.

Bell, of Spiers Place, Steeple Ashton, started the fire in March 2001 after being left devastated when his wife left him.

She had met Mr Rivers via the internet earlier that year and set up home with him after her marriage of over 30 years broke up.

After the trial last year, Bell was cleared of arson with intent to endanger life but convicted of a lesser charge of reckless arson.

Judge John Machin said Mr Rivers had faced "horrifying" danger and might not have escaped if the fire had taken hold.

But he spared Bell jail, telling him: "I accept you were subjected to very, very severe stress by the way your wife behaved."

Bell was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay £350 in costs.

David Maunders, in mitigation, insisted: "There was a degree of humiliation. There must have been unimaginable hurt."