Notts woman’s arson attempt was drunken plea for help

Carol Taylor set fire to the lounge curtains of her semi-detached home on Cherry Avenue, Kirkby, at around 8.30pm, on July 11, prosecutor Jon Fountain said.

When one neighbour told her to put out the fire, she replied that she had done nothing.

In fact, Taylor earlier made suicide threats to a 999 call-handler and an ambulance was dispatched.

She was finally persuaded to leave the house, and later told paramedics: "I don't give a f***. I want to kill myself.”

She tried to extinguish the blaze herself with wet towels, Mr Fountain added.

Nottingham Crown Court heard she has eight previous convictions, and her recent offending was "low-level nuisance offending, clearly borne out of her alcohol problems."

She was on a community order for assaulting an emergency worker at the time.

Andrew Turton, mitigating, said Taylor would be allowed to go home in the short term, but may have to be rehoused, as Ashfield District Council planned to regain possession of the property.

"She has had great difficulties," he said. "She may have suffered from trauma in the past. There have been recent traumas. She has led a very lonely existence."

This, along with alcohol and Class B drugs, had led to her becoming unwell, he said.

"She has served the equivalent of a nine month sentence," Mr Turton told the court. "This is the first time she has been in custody. She has had brought home to her exactly what she faces if she reoffends.

"Whether it was to attract attention, or whether it was a genuine suicide attempt, we will never know. She put the fire out herself."

Taylor, 51, pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, on August 10.

Judge Stuart Rafferty QC sentenced Taylor to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years. He revoked the community order and imposed a new two year order, with a six month alcohol treatment requirement and 30 rehabilitation days.

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