Two teenagers whose 'prank' with a firework gutted a family's home were today warned they could be jailed.

Trainee butcher Lewis Colwell, 18, and Jamie Matthews, 19, set fire to a rocket in the letterbox of the house in Ramsay Road, Headington, Oxford, as a Halloween prank.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted Colwell, of Downside Road, Risinghurst, of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered. Matthews, a trainee surveyor, of Manor Farm Road, Horspath, had already admitted the charge.

But the jury cleared the pair of arson with intent to endanger life.

Colwell and Matthews, both former Wheatley Park School pupils, struck a few minutes before midnight on October 31.

David Norbrook, his wife Sharon and their two sons, then aged three and six, were asleep upstairs but were woken by their smoke alarm and fled the house.

In a statement, they said they felt no ill-will and thanked the emergency services. The family is still living in temporary housing.

They said: "All of our children's clothes, toys, drawings and other personal effects since their birth were destroyed.

"All our clothes and furniture, along with thousands of papers and books essential to our work were permanently damaged or destroyed.

"To us this was a crime with potentially deadly consequences.

"We have been disturbed by the language used by some people discussing the case - high jinks, pranks, Hallo- ween fun and so on. When our small children ask why our house was set on fire, these terms do not seem to answer the question.

"If we had not had a smoke alarm and alert neighbours we would all have died."

The jury earlier heard Colwell and Matthews initially wanted to target the Norbrooks' neighbour Patrick Neil, a football coach, but changed their minds.

Adjourning sentencing, Judge Bruce McIntyre said: "These are serious offences. I am going to order that the pre-sentence reports are prepared on an all-options basis - that means that all sentencing options will be open to me, including the imposition of custodial sentences."

Colwell and Matthews were bailed and ordered to appear at Reading Crown Court for sentencing on Friday, July 11.

Two teenagers whose 'prank' with a firework gutted a family's home were today warned they could be jailed.

Trainee butcher Lewis Colwell, 18, and Jamie Matthews, 19, set fire to a rocket in the letterbox of the house in Ramsay Road, Headington, Oxford, as a Halloween prank.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted Colwell, of Downside Road, Risinghurst, of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered. Matthews, a trainee surveyor, of Manor Farm Road, Horspath, had already admitted the charge.

But the jury cleared the pair of arson with intent to endanger life.

Colwell and Matthews, both former Wheatley Park School pupils, struck a few minutes before midnight on October 31.

David Norbrook, his wife Sharon and their two sons, then aged three and six, were asleep upstairs but were woken by their smoke alarm and fled the house.

In a statement, they said they felt no ill-will and thanked the emergency services. The family is still living in temporary housing.

They said: "All of our children's clothes, toys, drawings and other personal effects since their birth were destroyed.

"All our clothes and furniture, along with thousands of papers and books essential to our work were permanently damaged or destroyed.

"To us this was a crime with potentially deadly consequences.

"We have been disturbed by the language used by some people discussing the case - high jinks, pranks, Hallo- ween fun and so on. When our small children ask why our house was set on fire, these terms do not seem to answer the question.

"If we had not had a smoke alarm and alert neighbours we would all have died."

The jury earlier heard Colwell and Matthews initially wanted to target the Norbrooks' neighbour Patrick Neil, a football coach, but changed their minds.

Adjourning sentencing, Judge Bruce McIntyre said: "These are serious offences. I am going to order that the pre-sentence reports are prepared on an all-options basis - that means that all sentencing options will be open to me, including the imposition of custodial sentences."

Colwell and Matthews were bailed and ordered to appear at Reading Crown Court for sentencing on Friday, July 11.