Welsh Rapper Jailed for Torching Wrong House in 'Childish' Hip-Hop Feud

Michael Athernought posted and expletive-laden diss-track online against rival rapper Ricky Williams, threatening to "burn your house to the ground" just days before he threw a petrol bomb at the home of Williams' neighbour by mistake.

A Welsh rapper who mistakenly firebombed an innocent family's house in a hip-hop feud has been jailed for nearly 10 years.

Michael Jordan Athernought was sentenced to nine years and nine months at Swansea Crown Court on Monday. Judge Paul Thomas QC told the convict he would serve four years and six months in jail and then released on license for the remainder of the sentence.

In his comments, Thomas called the 25-year-old, who performs under the stage name Ath, "pathetically childish" and a "pseudo-gangster".

Athernought admitted arson with intent to endanger lives after throwing a petrol bomb at the door of a house on Clyndu Street in Morriston in the small hours of November 16 2021.

His target was fellow rapper Ricky Williams, AKA Chronic Official, but got the wrong address and instead attacked the home of Helen Davies and her teenage son who was sleeping downstairs that night after breaking his leg.

Two neighbours, one of them the brother of Williams, were alerted by glass breaking and the roar of flames. They helped Davies and her son escape while fighting the fire.

Officers from South Wales Police arrested Athernought at his home not long after the incident, where they found a jerry-can of petrol and torn pieces of a towel.

Prosecutor Ian Wright QC told the court how Athernought provoked the feud with disparaging comments on a Facebook video by Williams, who responded with a "diss-track" against the other rapper.

Athernought posted his own expletive-laden diss-track against Williams online just days before his botched arson attack. In it he explicitly threatened to burn his rival's house down.

Wannabe gangster rapper tries to firebomb rival MC who 'dissed' him on track - but ends up setting fire to the wrong househttps://t.co/lBeQOTW73S pic.twitter.com/b6nmS0vnoW

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"War means war, kid," Atherton says in at the start of the video, later rhyming: "I'll burn your house to the ground, pound for pound," after accusing Williams of being a gay drug abuser and his wife of being a prostitute.

"A more pathetic, childish reason for acting as you did is frankly quite difficult to imagine," Thomas said in his judgement. "Instead of acting as a grown-up, you decided, because you think of yourself as some sort of pseudo-gangster, to make a video."

"And in that video, you made threats to burn his house down. It was as graphically threatening as it was pathetically childish," the judge added. "You followed through with your threats by going to what you thought was his house and setting fire to it using accelerants. In actual fact, due to your incompetence, you got the wrong house."

Thomas also ordered Athernought to pay a surcharge on his release, and slapped him with a 10-year restraining order.