A woman who set her childhood friend on fire after he made what she deemed misogynistic comments has been jailed for a minimum four and half years.
Corbie Walpole had hoped to receive a non-custodial sentence but was put away for a maximum seven years and six months after a judge rejected her plea for mercy.
Judge Jennifer English rejected any suggestion Walpole had been provoked when she attacked Jake Loader in an act of ‘destructive and horrifically painful violence’.
‘It is never easy to send a young person, particularly a young woman, to jail,’ Judge English said on Thursday.
‘But where appropriate it is something that must be done.’
Walpole arrived at the NSW District Court, sitting in Albury on the NSW-Victoria border, with her parents and sister shortly before 10am.
About an hour later when the electrician learnt her fate the 25-year-old turned to her distressed family and mouthed, ‘It’ll be OK, it’ll be OK’.
Walpole had faced a maximum 25 years for setting Mr Loader ablaze as he sat on a chair in her backyard at Howlong, about 30km west of Albury, early last year.
Corbie Walpole (centre), 25, grinned as she went into court where she was sentenced to a minimum of four-and-a-half years behind bars
Jake Loader (pictured with his partner Annabelle McGee) spent eight days in a coma, 74 days in the burns unit, and underwent 10 operations
Walpole torched her childhood friend Jake Loader after a night drinking on January 6, 2024. She is pictured on her last day of freedom before she was jailed on Thursday
The pair met when Mr Loader went to boarding school at St Paul’s College at Walla Walla, about 40km north of Albury, and had been friends for at least nine years.
Mr Loader, who lives in the Queensland Outback where he musters cattle, was in Howlong to join old friends including Walpole for a night on the drink which included celebrating a 21st birthday.
Walpole claimed Mr Loader had been baiting her before she poured 5 litres of petrol over his head and used a cigarette lighter to turn him into a human torch.
‘He was antagonising me,’ she previously told the court.
‘He told me to go to the kitchen where I belong because I’m a girl. I gave it back to him and called him a misogynist.’
Judge English rejected any suggestion Walpole, who claimed she had felt ‘challenged and disrespected in her own home’ had been goaded into doing what she did.
‘I find that the assault upon the victim was unprovoked,’ the judge said.
Walpole wiped tears from her eyes as Judge English recounted the night that changed Mr Loader’s life forever.
Mr Loader suffered second degree burns to 55 per cent of his body and less severe injuries to an additional six per cent in Walpole’s backyard (above)
Mr Loader was 22 and Walpole was 23 when they began drinking with mates about 8pm on January 6, 2024 at Howlong Golf Resort.
Two hours later they went to a 21st birthday party at Howlong, then kicked on to a house party at North Albury, and returned to the birthday gathering about 2am.
The group’s final stop was Walpole’s home, where they settled into the backyard about 4am.
Some of the revellers, including Walpole, had taken cocaine earlier in the evening and most had retired to the Russell Street house, where Walpole’s partner was sleeping, within an hour.
Judge English said Walpole had begun drinking at 5pm, downing bottles of cider, schooners of Canadian Club and Bacardi and cola, and cans of Hard Solo.
An expert estimated Walpole had consumed 23 to 35 standard drinks over 12 hours and would have had a blood alcohol level between 0.22 and 0.38. In all that time she had eaten only two slices of pizza.
Walpole claimed Mr Loader had been antagonising her throughout the evening, trying to wrestle her and wake her sleeping boyfriend.
‘He was really pushing my buttons,’ she said.
Mr Loader’s family were seen leaving the court room after Judge English gave Walpole a non-custodial sentence
Walpole’s family accompanied her to the courthouse and were seen visibly distressed during sentencing
‘I was feeling overwhelmed by [Mr Loader’s] presence and I didn’t know what to do.’
Walpole snapped when Mr Loader said she should be in the kitchen baking scones, rather than out drinking with boys. Walpole had a can of Hard Solo in her hand when she erupted.
Walpole got up from an outdoor table and went to her garage where she collected a 5 litre jerry can of fuel, went back to the table, poured the petrol over the seated Mr Loader and waved a cigarette lighter around.
‘I’ll do it,’ Walpole said. ‘I’ll do it.’
Mr Loader replied: ‘Go on, do it.’
Walpole carried out the threat and Mr Loader was immediately engulfed in flames.
Mr Loader, who ran around the yard screaming, tried to pull off his shirt but the melted fabric stuck to his skin. Two male friends extinguished the fire by plunging Mr Loader into a small pool.
Walpole held her head in her hands and said: ‘What the f*** have I done? He was telling me to do it.’
Walpole and Mr Loader met when he went to boarding school at St Paul’s College at Walla Walla, about 40km north of Albury
Walpole (above) said earlier this month she did not know why she had set Mr Loader on fire. ‘Jake didn’t deserve what happened,’ she said
Mr Loader was taken by ambulance to Albury Hospital then flown to The Alfred in Melbourne where he spent eight days in a coma, 74 days in the burns unit, and underwent 10 operations.
He had suffered third degree burns to 55 per cent of his body and less severe injuries to an additional six per cent. Those injuries were spread across his back, chest, arms, legs and face.
Judge English described Walpole’s deeds as ‘deliberate acts committed in the presence of others’.
‘For those present it must have been truly horrific to be witness to,’ she said.
‘It was an act of immediate, destructive and horrifically painful violence.’
Mr Loader can no longer expose his skin to the sun and his body struggles to regulate its temperature because his sweat glands were burnt off.
‘It will affect the rest of my life,’ Mr Loader said in a statement read by Crown prosecutor Max Pincott earlier this month.
Walpole pleaded guilty in December to one count of burn, maim, disfigure or disable a person by use of a corrosive fluid and has been on bail for the past 16 months.
Walpole mouthed ‘it’ll be okay’ to her family (above) before she was led away to prison
At a pre-sentence hearing, Walpole wept on in the witness box as she unsuccessfully attempted to explain what she had done.
‘I wasn’t thinking,’ she repeatedly said when asked about her actions.
‘I didn’t want to injure Jake.’
Judge English did not accept Walpole’s contention she was unaware putting a cigarette lighter to a man soaked in petrol would set him ablaze.
‘I find that position difficult to believe,’ she said.
Judge English also rejected Walpole’s claim she had set out to scare Mr Loader, rather than harm him.
‘She threatened to set fire to the victim and she did exactly that,’ she said.
Further, Walpole should have known the consequences of lighting the petrol would likely be catastrophic – ‘which is exactly what occurred’.
A violent scuffle and drug abuse preceded Corbie Walpole’s attack on Mr Loader in January 2024
The court heard Walpole, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily after a scuffle with a pub bouncer in 2021, had been abusing drugs and alcohol from late 2022.
She had been in a failing relationship which left her feeling trapped and depressed early last year but admitted that was no excuse for setting fire to Mr Loader.
‘Jake didn’t deserve what happened,’ she said.
‘I find it very hard to believe the injuries that were caused was from my doing. I would do anything to go back in time.
‘No one deserves what happened to Jake and I can’t imagine the pain – both physically and emotionally – that I’ve caused him and his family.’
In the months leading up to the attack, Walpole had been taking 1 gram of cocaine and two to three ecstasy tablets as well as drinking heavily every weekend. She was also occasionally using ketamine and meth.
Judge English found Walpole had engaged in ‘nothing short of drug and alcohol-fuelled violence’ rather than becoming aggressive due to her depression.
Walpole and friends had been drinking in the backyard of her Howlong home before she set Jake Loader alight (pictured with his girlfriend Annabelle McGee)
She described the attack on Mr Loader as ‘not uncharacteristic’ considering she had previously admitted assaulting the bouncer in 2021 when she was intoxicated.
Judge English mentioned several times that Walpole and Mr Loader had been friends.
‘This is a tragic case in so many ways for the victim and his family and for the offender and her family,’ she said.
Walpole has exhibited symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder since the attack and constantly replays the events of the fateful morning in her head.
She experiences nightmares and intrusive thoughts and clearly remembers the ‘bewildered’ look on Mr Loaders’ face when he stepped out of the pool covered in burns.
Walpole, who Judge English accepted was extremely remorseful, did not leave her house for a month after the attack and the smell of petrol now triggers a traumatic reaction.
She has given up alcohol and drugs and is undergoing counselling.
Judge English received character references from Walpole’s mother, father, sister, employer and netball coach at the Howlong Spiders. All spoke of her in glowing terms.
Walpole, Mr Loader and their friends began drinking about 8pm on January 6, 2024 at Howlong Golf Resort. During the night, Walpole also consumed cocaine
Despite Walpole having excellent prospects of rehabilitation and being highly unlikely to reoffend, Judge English said no sentence other than full-time custody would be appropriate for her offending.
Walpole’s sister burst into tears when Judge English said Walpole would first be eligible for parole on November 11, 2029.
Walpole did not express emotion and had to wait five minutes before two Corrective Services officers arrived to take her to the cells below the court house.
She waved goodbye to her family in the public gallery as Judge English said, ‘Take the prisoner downstairs please’.
