A Brisbane woman has told a court she does not feel like she will "ever be safe" from her husband who tried to burn down their house while she was inside.
Curtis Mickan set fire to the bottom of his Wooloowin home while his pregnant wife and her mother were upstairs in May 2021, only hours after he was released from custody over an earlier assault.
The 36-year-old pharmacist was originally charged with two counts of attempted murder, but they were dropped last year.
He pleaded guilty to eight offences, including arson, choking and multiple accounts of assault and on Thursday was jailed for seven years.
During a sentencing hearing, the Brisbane District Court heard Mickan came home late at night intoxicated and began assaulting his wife, who had been trying to help him go to bed.
The attack included throwing a lamp at her, slamming her against a wall and grabbing her "by the throat" and cutting off her airways, the court heard.
After being taken into custody over that incident, the court heard Mickan returned to the house in the early hours of the next morning and used an accelerant to start a fire underneath the two-storey property.
The two women managed to escape the blaze before it took hold.
They were uninjured, but the home and a car were destroyed by the fire, causing $1 million in damage, the court heard.
'I only just escaped'
Prosecutor Stephen Muir described Mickan's offending as protracted and "extremely serious" and said he created an "immensely dangerous situation".
"The conduct, in my submission, was vindictive," he said.
"It obviously posed great danger to human life."
The woman personally read a victim impact statement and through tears told the court "the terror that I experienced that night has forever changed me" and she was "lucky to be alive".
"I only just escaped being choked and burnt," she said.
"I have paid and paid and will continue to pay a heavy emotional, physical and financial price."
The woman said she believed she was "finally going to escape" the domestic violence on the night of attack, but he was still "exerting financial and coercive control" from jail.
"I realised I'm far from free," she said.
"I feel like he is actively trying to avoid me being free."
The woman said she is "deeply concerned that myself, my family and my future family may not be safe" and he had not shown any remorse.
"I'm now fearful of him," she said.
"I don't feel like I will ever be safe as I don't believe the problems underlying his behaviour will ever be cured."
The woman's mother also read her impact statement telling the court Mickan's offending against her daughter had caused "a seismic shift to my life" and "enormous upheaval".
"I am riddled with anger, sadness, hurt and frustration [and] these feelings never go away," she said.
The woman said Mickan had proven to be "unpredictable and dangerous and cannot be trusted around my daughter" and when he is released her family would "lose the freedom of security and safety and living our life to the fullest".
"My biggest fear is [her daughter] is not going to be safe," she said.
"Please don't let my daughter and our family become another statistic in domestic violence".
Extreme binge drinking
Mickan's defence lawyer Saul Holt told the court his client accepted his offending was "appalling" and that he had a "genuine level of insight into the harm he has caused".
"He does not for a moment, through me, shy away from that," he said.
Mr Holt told the court Mickan was diagnosed with a significant anxiety disorder and regularly self-medicated with alcohol including extreme binge drinking episodes.
"Alcohol never was and never will be an excuse for that conduct," he said.
When handing down his sentence Judge Brian Devereaux SC acknowledged the family's safety concerns, but said their fears could not be "completely cured" as offenders are eventually released from custody.
He pointed to strict conditions Mickan would be subject to, before ordering his parole eligibility for later this year, after he has served just over two years in custody.
