Theology student jailed for burning bush

A theology student has been jailed in Croatia after he caused £30m damage after he he set fire to a thorn bush that kept pricking him.

Jure Erceg was jailed for 15 months after a court in Erceg heard that he started the blaze on Velebit mountain in 2007 to seek revenge on the bush.

Erceg told the court that he lost his temper with the bush after it repeatedly pricked on his way to and from Zadar Faculty of Theology.



"It was an accident. I only wanted to get rid of that bush but it spread so quickly I couldn't put it out. It pricked me every morning and every night," he said.

Erceg and his father tried to call firemen by mobile-phone, but it had no signal. Psychiatrist Vera Klaric told the court that Erceg was not an arsonist.

Experts said he devastated nearly 500 acres of protected land in Paklenica national park, killing countless wild animals and birds.