Jilted addict set fire to home of lover after affair
A DUTCH addict set fire to the home of the nurse who treated him in hospital after she ended their love affair.
Psychiatric nurse Pauline Nisbet met Pieter Lens when he was being treated for ‘addiction issues’ at the private hospital where she worked.
Mrs Nisbet later began an affair with the 38-year-old following his release from Castle Craig Hospital near Peebles. It is understood that the nurse left her husband and three children to be with him.
However, when the relationship turned sour, Lens reacted with fury and began a campaign of threatening behaviour.
Yesterday he admitted nine charges including fireraising, threatening behaviour, breaching bail conditions and driving offences. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Mrs Nisbet met Lens while she was a psychiatric nurse but they did not begin a relationship until after his discharge.
Prosecutor Peter Motion said the pair began an affair in April ‘following a friendship’ at the hospital, which specialises in treating alcohol and drug addictions.
But the nurse began to have doubts about Lens within months and told him their relationship was over while driving on the A1 near Musselburgh, East Lothian, in July.
Lens grabbed hold of the steering wheel, forcing her to a sudden halt before emptying her handbag on the grass and driving away without her.
Soon after, she received a phone call from Lens saying: ‘I am coming for you now.’
He later told police he wanted the woman dead and if he was unable to do it, he would ‘get friends to do it’.
Lens was released on bail following a court appearance, but soon breached his bail conditions by contacting Mrs Nisbet and her family members by phone and making threats to kill them.
On July 24, he met up with Mrs Nisbet near her home in
‘I am coming for you now’
Peebles, where a row broke out and he was seen heading towards her home ‘with a lighter in his hand’.
When the nurse arrived at her home, she saw black smoke billowing from a window and she found Lens had set fire to a gas fire and a mattress
Lens then texted her sister, stating: ‘Watch it burn. I’m coming for you.’
Solicitor John Goode, defending, said his client had struggled with ‘psychiatric problems and substance abuse’ for the past 20 years.
Mr Goode said Lens would be deported following the completion of his sentence.
Sheriff Thomas Welsh, QC, deferred sentence until next month to allow for psychiatric and social work reports.