A 53-year-old Kent pub owner is behind bars awaiting sentence after being convicted of manslaughter and arson.

A jury decided that Keith Willoughby was responsible for the death of Derek Drury when the pair set fire to the Old Locomotive in Canterbury.

Mr Drury, a 40-year-old taxi driver, perished as petrol vapours caused a massive explosion. His body was recovered from the rubble two days later.

Sentence was adjourned until January 21 after Judge Warwick McKinnon ordered a psychiatric report. He said he did not believe that Willoughby was a pyromaniac.

A confiscation hearing will also be held on that date to determine the extent to which he has profited from crime. The site in Station Road West was sold for £480,000 on June 9 this year.

Maidstone Crown Court heard during the 13-day trial that Willoughby owed £200,000 to the Kent Reliance Building Society and £47,000 to Shepherd Neame brewery when he hired Mr Drury to help him torch the rundown bar.

He bought the Victorian building in 1987 and re-mortgaged it for £175,000 in 1990.

The pub ceased trading in 2000 and remained empty for some time. Willoughby had been trying to sell it for housing development but could not obtain the necessary planning permission because it was in a conservation area.

Jurors heard about Mr Drury’s double life. He had been married to Jacqueline for 22 years and had five children, but for the last nine years he was having an affair with mother-of-three Jane Sequenza, from Canterbury.

Both were in court to hear the jury’s verdicts. Miss Sequenza was accompanied by Mr Drury’s twin brother Michael.

The victim, who lived in Station Road, Whitstable, was having financial difficulties when he agreed to help Willoughby.

FULL STORY IN NEXT WEEK'S KENTISH GAZETTE