A 14-year-old boy who admitted setting light to two Sittingbourne primary schools is waiting to learn his fate.

The fires destroyed 14 Christmas trees and caused damage up to the value of £17,500.

The youth also admitted trying to intimidate a witness by following him home and threatening him on October 8.

The defendant, who cannot be named because of his age, was due to be sentenced at North Kent Youth Court in Chatham today (Monday) but the case was adjourned to Tuesday, December 1.

He is further charged with causing £71.71 of damage to a police cell in Gillingham on September 29 and damaging a police cell van on October 12. On the same day he is charged with beating an emergency worker, namely a police officer.

He also faces a robbery charge of stealing an iPhone 5c, a blue bandanna and £12 cash in Sittingbourne on October 25. The defendant has admitted all charges.

The schools, South Avenue Primary School in Sittingbourne and Sunny Bank Primary School in Murston were set on fire on Sunday, September 6. The blazes caused between £10,000 to £15,000 of damage at South Avenue and between £2,000 to £2,500 at Sunny Bank.

South Avenue's acting head Tracy Cadwallader said at the time two storage containers holding Christmas decorations including 14 trees and PE equipment, including two new netball posts, were destroyed. Desks taken out of classrooms to allow for social distancing lessons were also stored there and damaged.

She said: "We had just come back after lockdown and the summer holiday so the equipment we lost would have been used to give children a sense of normality."

Sunny Bank’s head Darren Waters said foam building blocks for the AstroTurf in the school's early years' area were destroyed. But he added: "We were lucky that alert members of the community saw the smoke and alerted a member of staff who lives nearby. One fire was started in a bin attached to a wall and the other was at the base of our shed."

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