Edith Fuller, 45, from Glenbuck Road, Surbiton, doused 58-year-old Mark Essex’s Guildford flat in petrol and set it on fire on March 19, 2012, a coroner’s court heard today.
Miss Fuller, who suffered with depression and had taken an overdose before, may have set fire to herself by accident after the petrol fumes ignited, Woking Coroners' Court heard.
Errrr....well, yes! Clearly, she wasn't the target, as her lover's testimony shows:
"She was up to something. She had a bit of a grin on her face and a menacing look."
She was clearly intent on something
other than self-immolation:
After he tried to escape the flat, she pulled him back inside and then set fire to petrol in the kitchen, he told the inquest.
And yet all the coroner seems concerned with is... her death.
Coroner Martin Fleming concluded: "She intentionally started the fire although it is unclear whether there was an intention to take her own life."
Seems pretty clear that her intentions were to take life, even if it wasn't
hers...
It's very common for would-be arsonists to incinerate themselves. We've all seen films where someone dowses a room with petrol, tosses a match, and calmly walks away while the fire gradually creeps across the floor, instead of, say, the fumes igniting instantly in a ball of flame.
ReplyDeleteIn an example of Darwin in action, some people can't tell the difference between fiction and reality and may just have time to realize their mistake in the time it takes to say "Whooomph!".
More CCTV needed!
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