Man jailed for burning ex-lover

A jealous alcoholic who set his ex-girlfriend on fire in a drunken rage was jailed for life on Tuesday.

Colin Bell, 47, of Downham Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire, was convicted of murdering Jennifer Black, 56, at Norwich Crown Court.

He claimed she had a history of self-harm and had tried to burn herself after becoming upset.

Jurors believed a statement made to police by Miss Black as she was dying in which she named Bell as her killer.

Hair on fire

She had told the detectives Bell became enraged when she demanded he leave her flat in Ely after a night's drinking and told another friend, Darryl Whiter, he could stay.

Bell had chased Mr Whiter from the flat with a kitchen knife before locking Miss Black inside with him.

He had hit her and said: "Who do you want, him or me? Who are going to choose? You know what I can do."

Bell had then used a gas lighter refill to set her hair on fire.

Miss Black put out the flames only for Bell to then splash turpentine substitute over her and set it on fire.

She doused the flames in the bath but her melting clothes had left her with horrific burns to almost a third of her body.

Miss Black fled by climbing through the bathroom window, bur she died in hospital on 5 August.

Ambulance not called

The court heard Bell, who was originally from Durham, had been unable to accept his relationship with Miss Black was over.

In court Bell had claimed that Miss Black had run into the sitting room from the kitchen already on fire.

He said he had put out the flames with two cups of water and claimed police had found his fingerprints on the turps bottle because he had replaced it in a kitchen cupboard.

Bell said he did not call an ambulance because he did not notice the extent of the burns at the time.

Sentencing Bell, Judge Richard Aikens told him he would serve at least 13 years in jail.