An Australian woman who was jailed for setting a male friend on fire has lost an appeal against the length of her sentence where she argued a judge failed to take into account that she developed PTSD as a result of her own crime.
Corbie Walpole, 25, doused Jake Loader in five litres of petrol and set him alight in her backyard in Howlong, NSW, in January 2024 because he joked she should stay in the kitchen and make scones instead of drinking with the boys, leaving him with life-changing injuries.
She was sentenced to 7.5 years’ imprisonment with a 4.5-year non-parole period in May last year, but appealed on the grounds NSW District Court Judge Jennifer English allegedly failed to view her PTSD as a relevant consideration in sentencing.
Walpole also alleged the judge denied her procedural fairness by rejecting the evidence of a forensic psychiatrist about the link between her crimes and a mental illness she was suffering from at the time.
But the Court of Criminal Appeal on Wednesday rejected the appeal and upheld the original sentence, the Daily Mail reported.
Justices Julie Ward, Richard Cavanagh and Richard Weinstein agreed that Judge English had denied Walpole procedural fairness by not raising the psychiatrist’s evidence in sentencing, but ruled that in considering the case as a whole the original sentence was warranted.
The appeals justices also noted it was “neither unusual nor surprising” for an offender to develop PTSD as a result of their crimes, but that it was not a form of extra-curial punishment.
“[PTSD] may flow from the realisation of what the offender has done and the consequences for the offender,” they found.
“It is sometimes associated with remorse. It is plain that, in this case, the applicant is remorseful. She thinks about what she did every day. She has intrusive thoughts relating to, and can be triggered by, petrol. Her sleep is disturbed and she has an entirely negative outlook about herself.”
The court also found that Walpole’s depression played a role in her offending but did not reduce her moral culpability “to any great extent”, and that her actions were “quite deliberate” and required “strong denunciation”.
The three justices said Walpole was unlikely to reoffend and had good prospects of rehabilitation, and said “we also accept that the applicant has experienced and continues to experience PTSD which arose as a result of the offending which may make her time in custody more onerous”.
Walpole pleaded guilty to one charge of burn, maim, disfigure or disable a person by use of a corrosive fluid, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment, but her lawyers argued at a pre-sentencing hearing that she should be spared jail entirely due to her mental health issues.
Walpole also claimed in court that Mr Loader had been antagonising her throughout the night of heavy drinking, and that his “misogynistic” comments caused her to “feel overwhelmed” and snap.
When asked why she had committed the crime, Walpole said she “didn’t know” and “I didn’t want to injure Jake”.
“I find it very hard to believe the injuries that were caused was from my doing,” she told the court.
But Judge English rejected suggestions Walpole was provoked by Mr Loader and only intended to scare her childhood friend, calling the assault “an act of immediate, destructive and horrifically painful violence”.
“She threatened to set fire to the victim and she did exactly that,” she said.
She noted Walpole left her home after setting Mr Loader alight instead of helping him, and that while others dragged the burning man into a small pool to extinguish the flames, Walpole just watched and said: “What the f- have I done, what the f- have I done, he just wouldn’t stop.”
Mr Loader, who musters cattle in outback Queensland, suffered third degree burns to 55% of his body, less severe burns to another 6%, spent eight days in a coma and another 74 days in a burns unit, and needed 10 surgeries.
He can no longer go in the sun and has trouble regulating his body temperature as his sweat glands were burned off.
Walpole will be eligible for parole in November 2029.
Header image: Left, Corbie Walpole. Right, Jake Loader and his girlfriend (Facebook).
