A teenager who threw a petrol bomb at a house in Stowmarket has been warned he is facing a period of detention when he is sentenced next month.

Eighteen-year-old Callander Ricketts carried out the arson attack in revenge for an incident several weeks earlier during which he had been attacked with a machete, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Ricketts, of Ipswich Road, Stowmarket, pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered at a house in Hill Rise, Stowmarket on June 29 last year.

Judge Emma Peters agreed to adjourn sentence until February 19 for a psychiatric report and a pre-sentence report.

However, she told Ricketts the offence he had admitted was serious and he should “prepare himself for prison”.

She agreed to allow his bail to continue on condition that he doesn’t enter Hill Rise, Stowmarket and doesn’t contact the victim’s family or prosecution witnesses.

He was also given an electronically-monitored curfew between 7pm and 6am.

Richard Kelly, prosecuting, said Ricketts had thrown a petrol bomb at the property.

Joanne Eley, for Ricketts, said her client had been attacked with a machete by the son of the occupant of the property in Hill Rise about a month before the arson attack.

He had suffered an injury to a tendon in his arm, which had required surgery, and he had subsequently suffered flashbacks about the attack.