Lewis Colwell behaved like an idiot. There is no doubt about that.

The then 16-year-old put a lit firework through the letterbox of a house in Headington for a lark.

He never expected it would leave the trail of destruction it did.

That was until Colwell saw the pictures in the Oxford Mail.

Both Colwell, a butcher, and friend Jamie Matthews were convicted of reckless arson.

And yesterday the now 20-year-old faced up to his past misdemeanours at an Eynsham school.

He told schoolchildren: “It was a big price to pay for something so silly to do. I didn’t think about the consequences one little bit at all. It was a mad moment.”

The message is a rather obvious one, but hammered home loud and clear.

The family is still coming to terms with the arson attack two-and-a-half years later.

Fair play to Colwell for having the guts to admit his mistakes.