‘Nasty assault and dangerous act’

JUDGE Jonathan Gibson said it was a ‘nasty assault’ and the arson was a ‘dangerous act’.

Sentencing, he said: “For some reason, which is wholly unexplained, when the papers on the coffee table set light you briefly but really quite viciously attacked [the victim], who is 90, and he ended up with wounds.

“You appeared to have had something in your hand, possibly the lighter when you did it.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate [to suspend the prison sentence]. This was a nasty assault and the arson was a dangerous act, albeit reckless.

“Fortunately the damage was not extensive but of course when there’s any fire in a domestic setting firstly there’s likely to be a lot of smoke damage and secondly it’s always dangerous because of the nature of the premises and what could happen.”

Defence barrister Philip Holden said her ‘best mitigation was her early guilty plea’.

He told the court that King, who has 24 previous convictions for 54 offences, was a ‘long-standing heroin addict’ but has had periods where she was clean and offence free.

He said she had ‘lapsed back into alcohol consumption and drug addiction’.