ALFRED Harris chose a unique way to confess arson – he sent his victim a postcard containing the lurid details.

Harris, a printer who was said to be of “imperfect education”, had deliberately destroyed a haystack on the outskirts of Southampton because he hated farmers.

Ironically, he had almost been caught at the scene.

He passed a local policeman who had just arrested a drunk and was taking him to the local police station.

Harris later freely confessed he had deliberately targeted the haystack at Weston as he trudged from Portsmouth to Southampton.

That night, he lit a piece of paper soaked in oil and set it alight before throwing it on to the stack.

He stood there in fascination, watching the flames soaring into the sky as he hid behind a bush.

It appears Harris had not been suspected of the crime until he sent the farmer, William Townsend, the postcard, happy about what he had accomplished and boasting he would devote his life to destroying their property.

But Harris, 28, retracted his confession when he appeared at Hampshire Assizes a few months later in 1894, claiming he had been drunk at the time and had learnt of the blaze from a labourer.

However, in his summing-up, the judge, Mr Justice Grantham, remarked to jurors: “If there ever was a case of a man determined to convict himself, this was it.”

Not surprisingly, the jurors never left their seats as they returned a guilty verdict.

“This was one of the worst cases of this type I have ever had to try,” the judge scorned, jailing Harris for three years.

As he was dragged away to the cells, Harris snarled: “You will get the next bomb.”