Judge said woman was ‘shocking and heartless’ setting victim on fire

Spencer, 34, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence.

She will have to serve nine years before becoming eligible for parole, and the 617 days she has spent in custody will count as time already served.

The court heard she threw a bowl of petrol on the woman’s face and hair, and used a jet lighter to deliberately set her alight outside Spencer’s Shepparton home on January 15, 2024.

The victim was engulfed in flames for 64 seconds and both women were airlifted to hospital in Melbourne.

The court heard the victim first arrived at the Shepparton property “clearly intoxicated, upset and volatile”, looking for Spencer’s partner who she believed had taken her e-scooter.

The victim threw a rubbish bin at the front door, and later threw a rock and a brick at a window.

The two women traded insults, and Spencer repeatedly told the victim to come inside the house, at one point saying “come in ... and I’ll give you what you deserve”, the court heard.

After Spencer eventually went outside, she tipped a bowl of petrol directly on the victim’s face and hair.

The two women grappled and fell to the ground; however, just before they hit the ground Spencer ignited the lighter, setting fire to the victim’s hair, head and upper body clothing.

Spencer was partially set alight after landing on top of the victim.

After rolling off her, the court heard Spencer watched her burn, picked up the lighter from the ground and went back inside her home.

Justice Andrew Tinney said he rejected Spencer’s previous claims that fear had any part to play in her offending, and she had acted solely out of “extreme anger” towards the victim.

“A simple viewing of the CCTV footage makes that entirely clear,” he said.

He also said he rejected that her partner had left her with the bowl of petrol to attack and set fire to unwelcome intruders, calling the explanation “unrealistic” and “minimising your responsibility for this heinous offence”.

Justice Tinney said Spencer planned the attack in advance, and had the bowl and lighter as weapons in preparation for attacking the “unarmed and helpless” victim whom she had no reason to fear.

He noted the three victim impact statements that were read to the court, including one from a traumatised bystander who said the woman had looked like a melting candle, and that he saw her skin peeling off her body.

Referring to the impact statement the victim had previously read to the court, Justice Tinney acknowledge she’d experienced “shocking, life-threatening, life-changing injuries” from which she would never fully recover, and her life was full of “almost unbearable physical and psychological pain”.

He acknowledged Spencer had long-standing mental health issues, a difficult childhood and a problem with drugs, specifically at the time of the attack, when she was affected by methamphetamines.

He also noted Spencer’s diagnoses of bipolar disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and stimulant use disorder.

In sentencing Spencer, Justice Tinney called her actions “vicious, cruel and appalling”.

“The use of fire as a means of inflicting serious harm upon another is shocking and heartless conduct,” he said.