Murderer Kane Hull to serve further jail time over arson plot

A murderer given a life sentence for a knife attack will serve further jail time after plotting to torch a vehicle as he waited to stand trial.

Kane Hull was jailed for at least 28 years over the stabbing of Ryan Kirkpatrick in a Carlisle bar in 2021.

Unrelated to the killing, Hull this week admitted possessing mobile phones while on remand and conspiracy to commit arson.

At Carlisle Crown Court, he was given a 30-month sentence.

Half of the prison term will be added, consecutively, to the one he is already serving.

The court heard Hull committed the offences while on remand at HMP Frankland in County Durham as he became increasingly possessive and angry about a former girlfriend.

Using tiny, unlawfully-held mobile phones which he hid in his bottom, he directed 25-year-old Steven Kidd to set fire to a car belonging to his former partner's family.

Prosecutor Tim Evans told the court Hull's murder trial had been delayed by two days when the "internal presence of the phones was detected and whilst prison authorities waited for them to be passed."

"That happened overnight," he explained, "when Hull was alone in his cell, giving him the opportunity to smash them beyond repair but, more importantly, beyond analysis."

However, detectives contacted a phone company and retrieved the content of text exchanges involving Hull and Kidd, and those sent by Hull to his ex-partner and her relatives.

The car was torched by Kidd on a public road in the Morton area of Carlisle on the night of 3 October.

When arrested the following day, Kidd commented that he "owed someone called Kane" £5,000 in drug arrears.

Judge Nicholas Barker told Hull he was "a dangerous offender" who issued threats, acted on them and used extreme violence.

Kidd, of Oaklands Drive, Carlisle, admitted conspiracy to commit arson as well as two motoring offences and was jailed for 37 months.

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