TERENCE Abbott grew up unwanted and unloved, and soon sank into a life of crime.Born in Ipswich on September 5, 1948, his mother didn't want him as a baby, and put him into care.

TERENCE Abbott grew up unwanted and unloved, and soon sank into a life of crime.

Born in Ipswich on September 5, 1948, his mother didn't want him as a baby, and put him into care.

His grandmother took charge of him as an 18-month-old toddler, but he still only saw his mother five times before his 16th birthday.

He had three sisters and one brother, of the same mother.

He felt that his grandmother tolerated him, and she only travelled the 20 miles to see him at school, to fetch him at the end of each term.

Joyriding in Co-op milk floats ended in his first brush with the law at the age of 12.

He was stealing cigarettes by the age of 14, and was sent to 'approved school' – a boarding school for young offenders – in 1963.

His grandmother died in January of the following year.

Terry – as he became known to his friends – was later sent to borstal for three and a half months for stealing cars and driving them – again joyriding.

His first job was as a labourer on a building site. He worked as a taxi driver in the early 1980s, but the job fell through and he turned to shoplifting with Lorraine to fund their drinks bill on nights out, which was £50-£60 a night.

They lived in Glamorgan Road, Ipswich at the time.

Terry was caught and sent to prison in 1985, and his sentence was extended to 21 months after another court case convicted him of stealing from cars.

He served seven months and was then granted parole in August 1985.

Lorraine had also been arrested but not jailed, and she moved to Speedwell Road on his release.

He was then banned from driving for a year in 1999, after spending the evening in a nightclub with Lorraine then fetching the car, only to see her coming out with another man.

At the time he set fire to Lorraine, Terry was unemployed and living in Speedwell Road where five of his cars and defunct batteries crowded the front garden.

He had a total of 14 cars to 'do up,' some in working order, and some not.

He drove one of them, a Renault 25, the day he attacked Lorraine.

He fully expected to go to prison for what he had done, telling his daughters as he confessed setting fire to their mum: "I'll be doing about 12 years."