LEEDS, UK: A mother is bracing herself for a fresh court battle with her former husband a year after he was jailed for torching her home as their autistic son slept upstairs.

Andrew Baker, 31, has been freed from prison early less than a year after being sentenced for the arson attack on the home of his then wife, Lyndsey Foy, their autistic son Luke, four, and Lyndsey's son from a previous relationship Joshua, 12.

Firefighters had to rescue Luke from his bedroom as flames and smoke took hold of the house in Belle Isle, Leeds, trapping the toddler inside.

Baker is now demanding access to the son, whose life he put in such grave danger.

Recalling the chilling moment she opened the solicitor's letter making the demands, Lyndsey told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "I thought it was some kind of sick joke. I was absolutely flabbergasted, at first, and then I became furious at the bare-faced cheek of his demands, considering what he put Luke through.

"There is no way I will allow him anywhere near Luke and I will fight him every step of the way."

Baker, a bin man, torched the house in November 2004, six weeks after Lyndsey left him following eight years of turbulent marriage.

Baker admitted to knowing his family was in the house but was sentenced to just three years after he pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

Baker, now living in a Leeds bail hostel after being released from prison on licence, was filmed on a CCTV system buying petrol at a petrol station in Stanningley Road shortly before the fire and was spotted close to the scene afterwards.

Lyndsey, 31, who has since divorced Baker and is preparing to marry new fiancee Lee Walker, 28, this autumn, said: "The sentence was disgusting - now I am living in fear that he will come back and try to finish us off. Luke was trapped in the bedroom. How can there be justice when he only gets a pathetic three-year prison sentence?

"If Joshua hadn't put a battery in the smoke alarm the Thursday before the fire, we would all have been dead. He should have got at least seven to 10 years."

She left their home in Bramley in June last year and moved to the Housing Federation home in Belle Isle where Baker struck.

"It was 12.40am. We were all in bed. The smoke alarm went off. I opened my bedroom door and there was black smoke everywhere. I phoned the fire brigade and told them I couldn't get to Josh and Luke, the smoke was overpowering me. I was told by the fire brigade woman to shut the door and put pillows under it to stop smoke coming in.

"The fire brigade got Josh out of the bedroom window. They had to come in with breathing apparatus to get Luke. He was still in bed."

Lyndsey said her eight-year marriage to Baker had been bad. "As soon as we married, he totally changed. He was arrogant, nasty, bad-tempered and tight-fisted. As soon as he got that ring on my finger, that was it. He even refused to accept that Luke suffered from autism."

Lyndsey also recalled the moment she bumped into her husband in a packed Leeds city centre just a day after he was released from jail.

"It left me completely shaken and I couldn't believe my bad luck when I saw him straight in front of me. Our eyes met but he never said anything to me because I was with Martin.

I knew he wouldn't do anything because he is a coward. He's no man's man - he will only hit women.

"But I have been totally on edge ever since I was told he would be released from prison because I cannot trust him as far as I can throw him."

(Source: Evening Post, June 21, 2006)