Second life sentence for man who set lover on fire
A VILE thug who doused his partner in petrol and set fire to her in an attack ‘inspired’ by Reservoir Dogs has been given a second life sentence after she died 21 years later.
Mother-of-two Jackie Kirk suffered horrific burns when Steven Craig, 58, lit the petrol with a cigarette lighter in a car park in 1998.
She miraculously survived and Craig was given a life sentence for grievous bodily harm, serving 19 years.
He was charged with murder when Miss Kirk died in 2019 aged 61 from the injuries inflicted in the drunken attack in Weston- superMare, Somerset.
A jury at Bristol Crown Court convicted Craig, 58, and judge Mrs Justice Stacey said he should serve another 15 years.
The judge described how Craig, from York, had repeatedly watched a scene in 1992 Quentin Tarantino gangster film Reservoir Dogs in which a policeman is tied to a chair and doused in petrol.
She told the killer: ‘Jackie described you watching the film with a permanent grin and said that you liked seeing the torture. You enjoyed acting like the characters in the film.
‘There is no doubt that you planned and intended to engage in a gratuitous, deliberate and monstrous attack upon Jackie...with whatever means at your disposal and to intimidate her psychologically to cause maximum physical and mental pain.’
The attack left Miss Kirk disfigured and with breathing difficulties. She spent nine months in hospital and underwent 14 operations including skin grafts but survived for 21 years and was able to see her children get married.
She did not make a complaint against Craig until a year after the attack when she found out he had raped another woman. She had met Craig by chance and gave him shelter because he was homeless.
Miss Kirk’s daughter Sonna, who was 13 at the time of the attack, said in a statement that her mother’s burns left her looking ‘like an alien’ and unable to speak.
The victim’s son Shane said: ‘Eventually she could leave the hospital – she was scared and excited. She struggled to climb the stairs up to her flat so she wouldn’t go out.
‘When she did leave the flat people would cross over to the other side of the road to avoid her or shout “Freak!”. Every day was a struggle.’