A pensioner has told how he walked out of his front door to find his neighbour trying to start a fire outside his house with him and his XL bully inside. Gerard Bennett had been working in the front garden of his home on Tavy Road in Everton for hours on March 26 this year when he went inside to make a coffee at around 6pm.
When he came out, he says he instantly smelled petrol and then saw his "nightmare neighbour" Gary Bohanna attempting to set one of his motorbikes on fire. Gerard, 70, said: "I had been working all day in the front garden, getting it ready for when it was being paved. I moved one of my motorbikes into the front garden but it was just a shell of a bike. It didn't have a petrol tank on it.
"I came outside after making a drink and saw him there. He was stood outside my house, leaning over the fence with a cigarette lighter in one hand and a blowtorch in the other.
"It was right next to my bedroom window."
Police and fire brigade contacted
Gerard continued: "I told him I was going to ring the police and he said 'go on then, I have PTSD'. I just thought how can he hide behind that? So I rang the police who told me to get in touch with the fire brigade."
Gerard, who lives in a semi-detached bungalow, explained how he has been left feeling anxious as a result of the incident, telling the ECHO he had had issues with Bohanna in the past.
He continued: "He's a nightmare. Everyone (else) on the road is lovely. I stood up to him and only spoke to him a couple times before this happened. I don't understand what made him do it."
Anxiety and sleeping on the couch
Inside the house during the incident was his triple American XL bully, Lenny, who he described as "harmless", and Gerard now refuses to sleep in his bedroom at the front of the house due to his anxiety.
Gerard said: "There is a nursing home next door too, imagine if that had gone up in flames. I've been sleeping on the couch since, I don't want to be in the bedroom."
Bohanna, 55, of Tavy Road, appeared in Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday where he pleaded guilty to attempted arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered. He had previously denied the charge.
Previous conviction for racist attack
Gerard said he was due to give evidence when the plea was changed.
Bohanna is due to be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on November 2.
Bohanna was previously convicted in 2023 after he targeted a taxi driver in a racist attack. Bohanna positioned himself behind the driver's seat then forcefully choked the driver with a belt as the vehicle was in motion, having subjected him to a tirade of vile racist abuse. Bohanna was given a 12 month jail sentence, suspended for two years in February 2023.
One Vision Housing, who look after the houses that Gerard and Bohanna live in, was contacted by the ECHO regarding these concerns but the housing association did not respond.
