A drug dealer doused a woman in petrol from a Lucozade bottle before she went up in flames.
James McGowan threatened to set Kelly Quinn alight when she asked for drugs while already in debt. The 24-year-old thug then hit her over the head with an iron bar.
Prosecutors said conflicting accounts of what happened next meant they couldn't be sure if McGowan set her ablaze. But after weeks in a coma, she remembered waking up covered in bandages like an Egyptian "mummy".
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Emergency services were called to flats in Derby Road, Southport at around 8.40pm on Boxing Day 2019. Ms Quinn, then 38, was taken to Whiston Hospital.
In January 2020, three men were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. The men, aged 35, 40 and 49, were later released without charge.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Ms Quinn spoke to police that February. Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, said: "Kelly Quinn was a drug addict. She was staying with her friend and needed to 'score'."
He said Ms Quinn often got drugs from a "supplier" operating out of a second floor flat. That night she went to the flat and was let in.
Mr Pickavance said: "She received a phone call from her supplier, who she knew as 'P'. That, the Crown say, is the defendant McGowan."
He said: "McGowan told her as she owed him money for drugs she had already had, she could have no more and if she did not leave the flat, he would come round and 'set her alight'."
McGowan and his girlfriend Holly McCarthy arrived. Mr Pickavance said McGowan had a Lucozade bottle he shook at Ms Quinn, who was left wet and could smell petrol.
McGowan hit her over the head and she fell to the floor. She also recalled McCarthy "ragging her" around.
Mr Pickavance said: "She then remembered being at the top of the stairs and being on fire. The last face she saw before being on fire was McGowan's."
Ms Quinn shouted for help, then rolled down the stairs trying "to put herself out". She suffered 10-12% burns to her face, neck, left arm and hands.
Angela Curry and her boyfriend Simon Bridge were in their flat and heard banging. A man smelling of petrol knocked on their door, entered and stashed a metal pole in their bedroom. Mr Pickavance said he told them: "I'm putting that in there, if you say anything, the same will happen to you."
Ms Curry said she asked what was going on, but he left. Shortly afterwards, the couple said Ms Quinn arrived, who was "wet through" and they could smell petrol.
She was with another man. They both asked for a cigarette and left after being given tobacco and cigarette papers.
However, Mr Pickavance said Ms Quinn told police: "What's confusing me is when you came to the hospital, and you said I went downstairs for a cigarette... l remember doing that, but l don't think l was full of petrol then."
Around 10 minutes later, the couple heard shouting and the fire alarm went off. Mr Bridge found Ms Quinn on the hallway floor.
The prosecutor said: "She had toilet paper around her, which was on fire. He stamped it out. He saw her clothes were smouldering and her bra was smoking."
Both witnesses identified McGowan as the man with the pole and Ms Quinn said he was the person who poured petrol on her. The Lucozade bottle was found containing petrol and bearing his fingerprint.
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When arrested and interviewed, McGowan denied knowing Ms Quinn or attacking her. He claimed it was mistaken identity.
He was charged with administering a noxious substance with intent to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm. Ahead of a trial, prosecutors accepted a guilty plea to the lesser offence of doing this with intent to injure, aggrieve, or annoy.
Mr Pickavance said: "The decision was taken because taking the evidence of the two witnesses who contradicted the evidence of Kelly Quinn, it was not possible to be sure McGowan had set Kelly Quinn alight." He said Mr Bridge told police immediately before he found the victim on fire, he heard her shout "Minnow, Minnow, stop it" and "What are you doing?"
Mr Pickavance said: "Minnow was the lad who had come to their door asking for a cigarette when Kelly Quinn did. McGowan was known as 'P'."
McGowan, of Openshaw Drive, Blackburn, also admitted assault causing actual bodily harm - splitting her head open with the iron bar - and breach of bail. He was due to be sentenced in February, but went on the run for three months until his arrest last week.
Michael Bagley, defending, said his client's guilty pleas were "the best way to show remorse". He said McGowan only intended to "scare" his victim and not "the dreadful consequences".
He said McGowan's parents were drug addicts, his mum died when he was seven and he was put in care, before his aunt raised him. He had one conviction for aggravated vehicle taking as a youth.
Mr Bagley said he gained qualifications in plastering and painting, but "became involved with drugs" through using them. He said McGowan was "playing effectively a role of enforcer in relation to what appeared to be trivial debts".
Mr Bagley said McGowan had since stayed out of trouble, worked and had a baby. He skipped his sentencing in a "loss of nerve" because he feared jail.
Judge Anil Murray said McGowan intended to "terrify" Ms Quinn - a "vulnerable" person "addicted to Class A drugs". He said: "She got her drugs from you. You were not in an equal relationship."
He said McGowan poured petrol on the victim, which at some stage ignited. However, he said the prosecution view was "it cannot be said with certainty that you set fire to her".
Judge Murray said the victim suffered a collapsed lung and required skin grafts. He said: "She remembers waking up in hospital like a mummy."
He told McGowan: "Your intention must have been to terrify your victim in order to bring her into line." Jailing him for two years and 10 months, the judge said: "I accept you did not set her on fire but you must have realised by pouring petrol on someone who smokes serious harm was foreseeable - there was a risk of serious harm occurring and it did occur."
McCarthy, of Openshaw Drive, Blackburn, admitted common assault. She was handed an 18-month community order, with a 15-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and 28-day home curfew in February.
