'Voices' told ex-nun to set fires

The Carmelite convent was established in Darlington in 1830

A former nun who could not cope with life in the outside world after 16 years in a convent, has been jailed for six years for arson.

A court on Teesside heard Phillipa Carruth started two fires in a desperate cry for help.

Carruth, 44, became a virtual recluse in a council flat after leaving the enclosed Carmelite Order convent in Darlington, County Durham.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Carruth, from Glasgow, claimed she heard voices before she set fire to her Darlington flat in January 2003, causing £15,000 damage and the evacuation of three other people.

Two months later, while at Darlington Memorial Hospital, she started a fire in her room, which damaged flooring.

Her defence barrister Dan Cordey told the court: "She was a lady struggling to cope with independent living.

"This is not a malicious lady who is lighting fires because she enjoys lighting fires, who has a wish to harm anybody else, but who, at the end of a series of tragic events, had done something incredibly stupid and now knows that she must pay the price."

I resisted the voices initially, but because I was unwell physically and they were so demanding I did what I was told Phillipa Carruth

The court heard how Carruth had been involved in fights at the convent and had made allegations of sexual abuse.

Mr Cordey added: "It does seem to have been some kind of cry for help in a totally misguided way which was behind this fire-setting.

"She spent some time homeless before eventually she managed to obtain a flat and was living there on her own without the support of her convent.

Carruth, who left the convent at the end of 2000, said: "I was terrified of telling people I was hearing voices."

'Complicated history'

She added: "I was living like a recluse. I resisted the voices initially, but because I was unwell physically and they were so demanding I did what I was told."

Judge Tony Briggs told her: "You have a long and complicated history that does not include any previous offending, and there is much about your life that would cause people to have a lot of sympathy for you.

"But I am afraid that there is in your makeup a very distinctive manipulative factor."

Carruth was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to two counts of arson.

The judge ordered that she should be subject to five years extended licence on release, which means she could be recalled if she reoffended.

Sisters of the Carmelite Order arrived in Britain in 1794, finally settling in Darlington in 1830.