Posted on 01/21/2005 12:42:50 PM PST by ambrose
Fri 21 Jan 2005
3:02pm (UK)
'Woman Set Fire to Lesbian Ex-Lover in Jealous Rage'
By Nick Foley, PA
A woman who doused a bed in petrol and set it alight while her lesbian former lover lay naked with a new girlfriend was today warned she faced a “substantial” jail term.
Jealous Sarah Metcalfe, 46, of no fixed abode, discovered her ex-girlfriend Katie Wrigglesworth in bed with Emma Shakesheff in a caravan she owned at Goldsbrough Mill Farm, near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.
Leeds Crown Court heard how Metcalfe set fire to the bedroom in a desperate bid to stop them having sex on July 20, last year.
The pair were initially trapped in the blaze, but escaped through a window.
Ms Wrigglesworth, 26, suffered 40% partial thickness burns to her arms, legs and body and had to spend 10 weeks in hospital.
Ms Shakesheff, 32, sustained extensive second degree burns to 44% of her body and spent six weeks at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, the court heard.
Metcalfe had pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm earlier in the trial, but insisted it was an accident.
Mr Justice Royce today discharged the jury after they had failed to reach a verdict on two counts of GBH with intent after more than five hours of deliberations.
Metcalfe, whose son was watching in the public gallery, then pleaded to an alternative charge of arson reckless as to whether life would be endangered.
Sentencing was adjourned for reports, but Mr Justice Royce warned Metcalfe that she faced a “substantial term of imprisonment”.
During the five-day trial the court heard how Metcalfe’s and Ms Wrigglesworth’s four-year relationship had ended in June last year, but the pair continued to use their caravan.
Metcalfe described how her heart “dropped to her socks” when she walked in on her former lover caressing a new girlfriend.
She became embroiled in a heated argument with her ex, who eventually stormed off stating: “I’ve had enough of this, I’m off to bed to make love to my bird.”
A few moments later she saw the pair having sex through an open bedroom door.
She later told police that her former partner had been “rubbing her nose in it” and grabbed a petrol can from the caravan.
She told the court she poured the petrol over the bed and just “wanted them to stop”.
Metcalfe, who had downed six or seven pints of beer and a few whiskies, then flicked a lighter and the room became engulfed in a wall of flames.
She went outside and helped pull Ms Shakesheff out of a window, through which Ms Wrigglesworth had already escaped and went to call the emergency services.
The victims, who were in court today, are still recovering from their injuries.
Metcalfe was remanded in custody for sentence at a date to be fixed.
That must have really sucked.
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