A woman set fire to her friend's room as she lay in it unconscious on New Year's Eve then tried to stop attempts to rescue her.
Natalia Pattinson had been out with victim Rebecca Collins in Newcastle but Miss Collins left and went back to the hostel on Denmark Street, Byker, where both women lived, around 10pm. Pattinson followed her back shortly afterwards and was in an "agitated and aggressive" state.
Miss Collins was very drunk and ended up slumped unconscious in her room as Pattinson removed items belonging to herself and took them to her room before setting two seats of fire using alcohol as an accelerant. The fire alarm went off and the one member of staff on duty came to try to help but Pattinson tried to stop her rescuing Miss Collins.
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By the time the fire brigade arrived, the room was well alight but they managed to get Miss Collins out before she was injured. All of the other residents in the hostel, which houses 24, had to be evacuated, including one who had to be taken out of a window.
Even after that, Pattinson, 23, then assaulted the member of staff, pushing her with force into a wall and screaming in her face.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Miss Collins lost almost all her belongings, worth £2,000 and including her only picture of her dead mum. She said: "I've lost everything I own in the world and my most precious possession that belonged to me, a picture of my deceased mother. Nothing can replace this. This has really upset me deeply."
There was also around £20,000 of damage done to the local authority-owned property. Pattinson, 23, pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered and common assault and also admitted a separate offence of burgling another residents room in December last year.
Jailing her for a total of 51 months, Judge Edward Bindloss said: "Rebecca Collins was heavily intoxicated and asleep in the room and you left her there with the fire burning. There was only one person on duty that night and she contacted the fire bridge then tried to get Rebecca Collins out of the room because she was slumped and didn't know the fire was burning around her.
"You took steps to prevent her from helping - you physically hindered her."
The court heard Pattinson acted impulsively and "suffered profound difficulties in her childhood".
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