An NSW woman has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for pouring petrol on a friend and setting him alight after a night of drinking, over a sexist comment.
Corbie Jean Walpole previously pleaded guilty in Albury District Court to one charge of burning or maiming by using corrosive fluid, admitting she poured petrol on her friend Jake Loader and then set him alight while they were drinking in her backyard in January last year.
The incident in Howlong on January 7, 2024 left Loader, then 23, with life-threatening burns on 55 per cent of his body, and he was in an induced coma for eight days. As reported by news.com.au, he was hospitalised for 74 days in the burns unit at Melbourne’s Prince Alfred Hospital, undergoing 10 surgeries and skin grafts.
In the sentencing on Thursday, Judge Jennifer English described the act as violence fuelled by drugs and heavy drinking.
“It is never easy to send a young person, particularly a young woman, to jail. But where appropriate, it is something that must be done,” she said.
“This is a tragic case, in so many ways, for the victim and his family and the offender and her family: two young lives destroyed.”
According to evidence presented in court and reported by the ABC, Walpole and Loader had been drinking for around 12 hours with friends on the day of the incident. Most of the group was heavily intoxicated, and Walpole had consumed cocaine.
The court previously heard Walpole and Loader — who were friends for almost a decade — had been antagonising each other throughout the night, and that he even tried to wrestle her at one point. On another occasion, he tried to wake up her boyfriend, who was asleep.
The situation escalated when Loader told Walpole she should “stay in the kitchen making scones” where she belonged, and not to go drinking with boys.
Walpole then left the group, got a five-litre container of petrol from the garage, and poured it over Loader. Loader responded, “Go on, do it,” after which Walpole set him alight, as reported by the ABC.
Friends heard him screaming and tried to put out the flames that were melting his shirt with a dog bed. He was then thrown into a pool, the court heard.
Loader suffered life-threatening burns on 55 per cent of his body and was in an induced coma for eight days after the attack. (Source: GoFundMe)
Judge English found the assault on Loader was “unprovoked” and “particularly violent”.
She also said she found it difficult to accept that Walpole’s depression at the time affected her decision-making.
“This was nothing short of alcohol and or drug-fuelled violence,” she said.
The court heard Walpole was remorseful, showed good rehabilitation prospects and had given up drugs and alcohol.
While crying on the witness stand, Walpole told the court she was shocked by her own actions.
“To this day I feel horrible, remorseful, guilty for what I have done to Jake, not only Jake but his family, his loved ones, his mutual friends … anyone who has been impacted in this entire case,” she said, per news.com.au.
“I would do anything to go back in time. No one deserves what happened to Jake and I can’t imagine the pain — both physically and emotionally — that I’ve caused him and his family.”
She will be eligible for parole in November 2029.
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