Man Receives Six Year Sentence After Setting Fire to Nightclub Over Vaccine Passport

A man in Bristol was sentenced to six years in jail after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to setting a nightclub on fire to protest vaccine passports.

In court this week, 29-year-old Owen Marshall admitted to setting fire to a petrol-soaked towel and placing it through the closed nightclub's letterbox. The club, SWX was scheduled to reopen to a sold-out crowd the next week but was unable to due to the damage caused by the fire.

Police said Marshall had become "obsessed" with COVID-19 protocols and was also targeting other venues in the area over the summer. Two months before the fire, Marshall had delivered a letter to SWX threatening he would "burn" the venue.

A day after the fire in July, Marshall hand-delivered a letter to Mayor Marvin Rees' home claiming responsibility for the fire and saying he wanted it to be a "warning to other venues."

On July 28, Marshall threw a brick through the window of a local pub with a note claiming that "vaccine passports were a breach of human rights."

Another nightclub in Bristol then received a threatening letter on August 2. According to police, the letter threatened the bar that if it required COVID passports, it would "sustain substantial damage like SWX."

Police were able to identify Marshall after reviewing hours of CCTV footage, which showed him in the area buying matches and starting the fire at SWX.

According to police, it took more than 130 fire service personnel to tackle the fire which took several hours to extinguish.

In the United States, many individuals have protested vaccine mandates. This included musicians canceling tours due to venues requiring vaccines, customers harassing employees at restaurants requiring proof of vaccination, and legislators pushing for fewer mandates in certain states.

Now that some places require proof of vaccination, some individuals have purchased fake vaccination cards in order to enter. In other instances, individuals have ignored mandates altogether and started fighting with employees.

"Owen Marshall's actions were motivated by the completely misguided belief the venues he targeted were about to introduce Covid vaccine passports," Avon and Somerset Police Chief David Stevenson said. "His obsession with Covid restrictions ultimately led him to carrying out the extremely reckless attack on SWX and it is only through sheer luck no one was physically harmed."

Stevenson explained that the fire had devastating impacts on the businesses based in the building. According to police, three businesses were located below the club that suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lost revenue damages.

"While Marshall has never explained his actions, I am pleased he ultimately accepted responsibility as it negated the need for a trial," Stevenson said.

Marshall was found guilty of three charges: arson being reckless as to whether life is endangered, criminal damage, and making threats to cause criminal damage.