Arsonist David Blagdon has spent time in jail making soft toys to help raise £95,000 for charity.

Blagdon, 47, is serving a life sentence for setting fire to curtains at St Laurence's Church in South Hinksey, Oxford, in July 1978.

The Oxford Mail has recently called on Home Secretary Jack Straw to intervene in the case. The Parole Board is not due to review it until November.

This week, the Howard League for Penal Reform called for a change in sentencing policy regarding arson, in the wake of the campaign to free Blagdon.

And yesterday it emerged that the prisoner has been determined to use his time behind bars constructively.

Among his proudest possessions are letters of thanks from the NSPCC for his help in raising money for charity by making soft toys.

He said: "I love kids and I would love to be a dad but it doesn't look like I'm going to get a chance." Blagdon has also trained as a prison counsellor and has helped to talk dozens of fellow prisoners out of suicide.

He added: "I am a different man from the stupid bloke who set fire to a pair of curtains. I am older and wiser and I deserve a chance."

Blagdon, of Kingston Lisle, near Wantage, has told how he carried out the arson as a cry for help following the death of his step-parents.

The judge at the trial gave the prisoner a "merciful" life sentence to keep him out of danger but human rights groups have called for changes in the law.

A spokesman for law reform organisation Justice said: "In practice, this means they rot in prison for years. There are people who have been forgotten by the system."

Blagdon's solicitor Kevin O'Gorman is due to visiting him at Bullingdon Prison today.

Mr O'Gorman is trying to set up a meeting with Lord Williams of Mostyn QC, the Home Office minister responsible for prisons.

Story date: Wednesday 17 February

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