A Geelong woman whose husband died after she set him alight in a "cataclysmic fireball" has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Warning: The following story contains content that some readers may find distressing.
Angela Surtees, 35, will be eligible for parole in eight years after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of her husband, Daniel Surtees.
Angela and Daniel Surtees had been arguing over the course of the afternoon of January 25, 2020, when the situation escalated and she set him alight after dousing him with petrol.
Their three children were watching television in the next room.
Mr Surtees died in hospital the following day as a result of the deep burns he sustained to more than 80 per cent of his body.
Angela Surtees was facing a murder trial, but struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for a guilty manslaughter plea.
She will be eligible for parole in 2028, with time already served.
'Serious' act of family violence
During proceedings, the court heard the couple was in an abusive relationship, with each party engaging in acts of domestic violence over the course of their 10 years together.
The court heard that on the night of the incident, Mr Surtees was egging his wife on during a lengthy argument, culminating in him bringing a jerry can of petrol to the sunroom of their Geelong home, and saying she "didn't have it in her" to set him alight
Angela Surtees doused her husband with a significant amount of petrol while he sat in an armchair. She then stood a metre away and flicked a lighter, setting off what she described as a massive fireball.
In his sentencing remarks, Justice Andrew Tinney said Angela Surtees was unable to explain why she had flicked the lighter after pouring petrol on her husband.
"You described having set off this quite massive chain reaction. When a fireball engulfed Daniel, the chair, the roof and the floor," Justice Tinney said.
Witnesses reported seeing Ms Surtees spraying down her husband, who was still on fire, with a hose on the front lawn of their home while the armchair in the sunroom was still on fire.
Angela Surtees told a triple-0 operator that the couple had been fighting over a jerry can and she had accidentally spilled it, setting him alight.
During the call, Mr Surtees could be heard in the background screaming in agony.
The prosecution conceded Angela Surtees did not intend to set her husband alight, however she did intend him to fear that he would catch fire.
Justice Tinney remarked that Angela Surtees had displayed a lack of remorse, after she sent letters to her husband's brother, Luke Surtees, blaming him for turning off her husband's life support.
"Your disgraceful blaming of Luke for the heartbreaking and obviously correct decision he was forced to make by your criminal actions to authorise the cessation of life support for Daniel may tend to indicate a lack of remorse almost a year after your crime," Justice Tinney said.
Justice Tinney also noted in his sentencing remarks that the seriousness of Angela Surtees's crime was exacerbated by the fact that there were children in the next room at the time of the incident.
"Another important aspect of the crime is that it was committed in close proximity to your three young children in the house, all of whom were in a position to witness at least some of the shocking and distressing aftermath of your crime," he said.
As part of proceedings, Justice Tinney considered submissions by forensic psychologist James Ogloff, who found that Angela Surtees had PTSD symptoms.
Justice Tinney did not take those submissions into account. He found Angela Surtees lied to Professor Ogloff about the circumstances that led up to her husband's death, including that she felt fearful of her husband, that he threatened her and grabbed her by the neck during their argument.
"In my view, it is quite inconceivable that you would have failed to mention it to any person at any time, including in the two lengthy police interviews," he told the court.
"To my mind, there was no realistic connection or causal connection between the PTSD condition and your offending."
