A drunk 34 year old woman set fire to her boyfriend's house, after an argument in the street during the coronavirus lockdown. Ms Kelly Barraclough was spotted shouting and strangely moving bins around outside the house around 12.20am on April 16, in The Poplars area of Hull, a port city in East Yorkshire, England, UK.

A neighbour heard Barraclough's boyfriend tell her to leave during the drunken quarrel, Hull Crown Court heard. The woman did so but returned a short while later. Prosecuting lawyer Jeremy Evans told the court that the neighbour then heard a "smashing sound" and saw that the living room window of Barraclough's boyfriend's home had been smashed, before hearing him accuse her of doing so.

Ms Barraclough was "erratic" after the neighbour went and told them to calm down, at first apologising and then adopting a "threatening demeanour". Her boyfriend left the scene 5 minutes later, Mr Evans said, and Barraclough was heard shouting: "I swear I'm going to burn this house down." Shortly afterwards, a fire alarm sounded and an "orange glow" and smoke were seen coming from the house.

Ms Barraclough then appeared in an upstairs bedroom window crying for help, the court heard, and the "brave" neighbours were able to put a ladder up to the window, while others pointed a fire extinguisher through the letterbox in an attempt to put out the flames. Barraclough managed to break the window but was too scared to climb down the ladder, so a neighbour stayed with her and was able to keep her calm until emergency services arrived and got her down.

Including damage from the flames and smashed windows, total cost of damage to the property was £2,750 (equal to N1.58 million). Lawyer Evans said initially investigators could not figure out where the fire had started, and believed Barraclough could not have been responsible because the front door was locked and she was trapped upstairs. So her boyfriend was arrested nearby and interviewed under caution – an "unfortunate feature of the case," Mr Evans said. CCTV footage later recovered showed it could not have been him because he had left before the fire started.

The boyfriend told police that Ms Barraclough had been threatening towards the property and herself, at one point picking up a knife and threatening to harm herself with it. After her arrest, Ms Barraclough initially said she could not remember what happened, but later pleaded guilty to arson while reckless as to whether life would be endangered. Mr Evans said she had caused significant risk of physical harm but "thankfully, neighbours were already aware of a situation developing in their otherwise peaceful street in the early hours of that morning."

Pleading for Barraclough, Lawyer Mark Savage said she could "blame no one but herself", but Judge David Tremberg was sceptical of exactly when and how much of the blame she had taken, after initially denying committing the crime. The court heard that Barraclough had suffered a "troubled" upbringing which left her struggling with her self esteem. She had been expelled from school as a child and struggled with binge drinking and cocaine use as she got older.

Sentencing her, Judge David Tremberg said Ms Kelly Barraclough had committed a "vindictive" act - even using an accelerant to encourage the fire to take hold. He sentenced Barraclough to 30 months in jail. She must serve at least half of that before being released to serve the rest of the sentence on licence.

SOURCES (abridged/expatiated):
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/drunk-woman-set-fire-boyfriends-22414934

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/kelly-barraclough-hull-court-crime-4362044

Mad people everywhere