A man convicted of murdering his partner who died 21 years after he set her alight has received his second life sentence for the attack.
Steven Craig, 58, inflicted horrendous injuries on Jackie Kirk in a car park in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in April 1998.
He was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the attack on the mother-of-two, and handed a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of nine years for that and two other offences.
Craig served almost 19 years in prison but was arrested and charged with murder in June 2021 after Ms Kirk's death at the age of 61 in August 2019.
A jury at Bristol Crown Court unanimously convicted Craig of the charge last month, finding the injuries caused by him - including burns to 35 per cent of Ms Kirk's body - were linked to her dying from a ruptured diaphragm.
Mrs Justice Stacey jailed Craig for life at the court on Thursday, telling him the total sentence for his crime should be 34 years - but he will serve a minimum of 15 years and five days due to his previous time in prison.
"Your conduct was sadistic from the build up to the attack," the judge told Craig.
"Your attack was planned and pre-meditated. Deliberately causing really serious injury by fire is likely to involve agony to the victim. It was just so callous and so brutal. Such cruel behaviour, so lacking in humanity."
She told Craig: "Your murder of Jackie justifies the total minimum term of imprisonment of 34 years but because you have already served nearly 19 years for causing the grievous bodily harm she so bravely ensured, the term I impose is 15 years and five days, that would bring the balance to 34 years."
The judge paid tribute to Ms Kirk's bravery and determination following the attack, which left her in hospital for nine months and requiring 14 operations including a tracheotomy and skin grafts.
She survived for 21 years and was able to see her son and daughter get married and have their own children.
They were by her bedside when she died in August 2019, having been taken to the Royal United Hospital in Bath seriously unwell.
The judge detailed how Ms Kirk suffered intestinal swelling for an unknown reason and scarring to her chest and abdomen meant their ability to expand was reduced.
This caused a ruptured diaphragm, with doctors unable to operate given her frailty.
Richard Smith KC, prosecuting, detailed how Ms Kirk and Craig had been in a relationship for about four years at the time of the attack.
"The defendant had repeatedly watched a scene from a film which appears to be the film Reservoir Dogs in which a man was tortured on a chair before being set alight," Mr Smith said.
"Jackie recalled the grin on this defendant's face as he watched that film. Jackie considered this defendant to have a fixation with fire."
Mr Smith said Craig told Ms Kirk they would travel to Plymouth in her car as he had arranged a gangster to kill her.
During the drive, Craig stopped at a petrol station and filled a Coke bottle with petrol - becoming "increasingly agitated and violent".
He parked the car in Weston-super-Mare, where he assaulted Ms Kirk before telling her to bend her head down.
"It was at that point she felt the petrol being poured over her head and neck," Mr Smith said.
"The defendant was to hold a cigarette and suggest that Jackie might have one as it might be her last. It was at that point Jackie became aware of the fact the defendant had a lighter in his hand.
"She recalled the lighter flame moving across her face as she was ignited."
A passer-by contacted nearby police and paramedics soon attended, finding Ms Kirk "severely burnt and in agony".
She did not make a complaint against Craig until a year later, when she found out he had attacked and raped another woman.
The court heard Ms Kirk was so disfigured that her daughter only recognised her by her feet when she first saw her in hospital.
Representing Craig, Christopher Tehrani KC acknowledged that his client had been a "thoroughly unpleasant person" at the time of the attack.
"This is a man who served just under 19 years of a previous life sentence and who will now have to serve a long period in custody based on the facts that are substantially the facts for which he was sentenced back in 2000," he said.
Permission had to be sought from the attorney general, then Suella Braverman, who is now Home Secretary, to charge Craig with murder.
Craig, from York, admitted the attack on Ms Kirk but denied being responsible for her death.
Victim's words read out in court
Words written by Ms Kirk in 1999, were read out at the sentencing by Mr Smith
"It is an understatement to say that I was shock and traumatised upon realising and seeing the extent of my injuries," he read.
"I had many sleepless nights through the pain and discomfort and of course reliving the horrific incident in my mind.
"There were times in hospital that I just wanted to give up and hide away. I still today do not know the full extent physiologically that this has had on me and my life.
"I obviously received counselling whilst in hospital but nothing or no amount of counselling could prepare me or did prepare me upon returning to live in a community. I am now a very timid, shy, and even embarrassed person."
'This was absurd that the only way I could recognise my mum was by her toes'
Ms Kirk's daughter, Sonna, read a statement to the court detailing how she was 13 years old and her brother Shane was 22 when their mother was seriously injured.
She described the pair taking three buses to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, where Ms Kirk was being treated.
"Me and Shane were greeted by a nurse who told us to prepare ourselves," Sonna said.
"I knew she would be burned and hard to recognise but when I walked into her room I had to take the nurse's word for this (that) the person I saw sitting in the bed was my mum as it looked nothing like her.
"I did my best to hide my shock and gave her a cuddle but this person just didn't look like my mum. She had a very skinny body, hardly any hair and a patchy face.
"She had tight skin on her face, no lips and just a slit for a mouth. She had no nostrils, and the scar tissue that pulled tight across her face was pulling her bottom eyelids down. She looked like an alien.
"We sat on her bed and she wrote on a notepad as she had no voice, with just a tube in her throat so she could breathe.
"As we sat on her bed she began to write and though messy it looked like my mum's writing. The words she wrote also sounded like what my mum would say.
"I looked at her feet, her toes were my mum's toes and I knew then that this was my mum. I remember thinking that this was absurd that the only way I could recognise my mum was by her toes."
Ms Kirk was initially given a life expectancy of 10 years but survived for 21.
Ms Kirk's son Shane described how she rarely complained about her injuries but once admitted she was always in pain, found it hard to sleep and would have nightmares when she did.
"Mum was just 40 years old when she was burned, but she managed to find her voice again after being told she would never talk," he said.
"She beat all the odds and went on to have over 20 more years that I will always be grateful for.
"I will always feel that mum should and could have had and done so much more in her life but Stephen Craig has taken her from our lives too soon."
