A MAN has admitted poisoning two people at a Purbeck holiday cottage last summer.

Richard Pearce piped butane gas through the rafters in July.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of causing a noxious thing to be administered or taken with intent by unlawfully administering butane gas with intent to annoy.

Pearce committed the offences when he was living in Acton, near Langton Matravers, in July.

The first offence relates to a man called John David Webster on July 7 and the second to a woman called Jean Nolan on July 2. Neither are believed to be permanent residents in the area.

Pearce, now living at Tatnum Road in Oakdale, Poole, admitted the offences when he appeared before Bournemouth Crown Court.

Sentence was adjourned until March 5 to allow for the preparation of medical reports and a pre-sentence report.

When contacted by the Daily Echo, Pearce, who was staying at a bed-and-breakfast premises, said the matter was now finished, adding: "I don't have anything more to say. It is all being dealt with by the court."

Residents of the remote hamlet of Acton were reluctant to talk about the incident last summer.

"I can't say where the cottage is because his mother lives there and she is in her 90s, we have to protect her," said one local, who did not give her name.

Another resident added: "There must be something wrong with him to have done what he did."

Pearce, thought to be in his 50s, was remanded on bail on the condition that he lives at a specified address, and does not contact John David Webster, Jean Nolan or Guy Pearson.