Man Suffers Severe Burns After Telling Woman to ‘Stay in Kitchen’ and Being Set on Fire

An Australian woman has admitted to splashing her long-time friend in petrol and setting him alight after a night of wild partying following the man’s misogynistic remark, a court heard last month.

ABC News reported that Corbie Jean Walpole, 24, pleaded guilty to one charge of burning or maiming with corrosive liquid after the terrifying attack on Jake Loader, 23, at a NSW house on January 7 last year. The two had been friends for many years, but reported tensions erupted during the early hours of a wild night of drinking and drug-taking.

Partying, Cocaine, Fire

The Albury District Court was told Walpole and Loader were drinking with their friends in Howlong and came back to her backyard at 5am to keep drinking. They were extremely drunk, and Walpole had also done cocaine.

Loader supposedly goaded Walpole throughout the evening, trying to fight with her and waking up her sleeping boyfriend. She said she was overwhelmed and did not know what to do with his actions.

The court learned that Corbie Jean Walpole was depressed and struggling with substance abuse when the incident occurred.

The sexist comment

The altercation on January 7 escalated as Loader allegedly told her that she ought to “stay in the kitchen making scones” if she could not keep up drinking with the boys. That sexist comment pushed Walpole to the limit.

She got up from the table, proceeded to the garage, and came back with a five-litre petrol can. She poured it over Loader and moved a lighter in his direction.

“Go on, do it,” said Loader and Walpole did. She lit the lighter and flicked the flame on him, setting him on fire.

55% Burns

Loader received life-threatening 55% body burns. He was in a medically induced coma for eight days and was an inpatient in the burns unit of Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital for 74 days. He had 10 surgeries and still has to endure the long-term effects: he is unable to allow his skin to be exposed to the sun, struggles with maintaining temperature in his body because of damage to his sweat glands, and has endured extreme financial disadvantage, the ABC News report said.

“This attack injured me, but it injured all the people who cared for me,” Loader wrote in a victim impact statement read during court.

Walpole was visibly upset in court on May 8 and openly displayed deep regret for what she had done.

To this day I feel terrible, guilty, remorseful of what I’ve done to Jake not just Jake but his family, his loved ones, his friends who are friends of both of us… anyone who’s been affected in this whole case,” she told him. “I find it extremely difficult to believe the damage that was done was a result of my actions. I would do anything to turn back the clock.”.

No one deserves what happened to Jake and I can’t even imagine the pain, physically and emotionally, that I’ve inflicted upon him and his family,” she said.