LOVERS’ TIFF KILLER SET FIRE TO FLAT
Ex-con tried to ‘burn her old life’ by putting clothes and paper on cooker
A WOMAN who killed her boyfriend faces being jailed again after torching her home to “burn her old life”.
Victoria Kydd, 43, put lives at risk by piling paper and clothes in pans on her cooker and setting fire to them.
The blaze was put out by heroic passers-by who spotted smoke and flames.
A court was told when firefighters were at the scene in Newburgh, Fife, Kydd tried to torch the flat for a second time.
She was jailed for five years in 2006 for the culpable homicide of John Lofthouse, 32, after he refused to have sex with her at their home in Dundee. She stabbed him through the heart.
Yesterday, she was warned she faces being sent back to jail.
Sheriff Paul Brown said: “She has a very concerning previous conviction. This is a serious matter.
“I will continue bail but she shouldn’t read anything into that as I still have all sentencing options open to me.” Fiscal depute Gavin Burton told the court: “The accused had been in a relationship with Daryl Mayer for three years.
“It ended in 2018 and they remained friends. He visited on January 5, 2021.
“He saw her setting light to papers using the gas hob. He asked what she was doing and she said she was burning her old life.
“She became angry and told him to leave. He left.”
Stuart and Elaine Ingram were walking past when they heard a smoke alarm and saw flames at one of the windows.
They put the fire out and searched the flat but could not find anyone.
They heard smashing glass and discovered Kydd breaking windows, causing shards of glass to fall into the street.
Firefighters arrived and discovered the burnt clothing in the sink.
Kydd refused to come out of her bedroom but asked one of the firefighters for a glass of water. Moments later, he heard the fire alarm sounding again and went back upstairs to discover Kydd standing over the cooker, with a new batch of smouldering blankets.
Kydd then threw a lit cigarette at a police officer as he approached to arrest her and he had to stamp it out after it landed on a pile of clothing on the floor and caught on fire.
Solicitor Catriona Clark, defending, said: “She has had issues with alcohol. She was in employment for eight years and was settled.”
Clark told Dundee Sheriff Court Kydd had latterly been struggling with depression but had recently given up alcohol.
She added: “It would seem to be something of a cry for help.”
Kydd admitted culpably and recklessly endangering lives by setting fire to clothing, blankets and paper at her former home in Newburgh High Street and assaulting two police officers.