A woman who set her childhood friend on fire while drunk after he ‘pushed my buttons’ and joked she should ‘go to the kitchen where I belong’ has made an extraordinary plea for a lighter sentence.
Corbie Walpole argues the judge who jailed her for a minimum of four-and-a-half years failed to properly consider her mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the crime itself, as well as a pre-existing depressive disorder.
Walpole told a court that her mate Jake Loader made misogynistic comments to her before she poured five litres of petrol over his head and used a cigarette lighter to turn him into a human torch.
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. She had eaten only two slices of pizza in all that time.
Walpole pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to one count of burn, maim, disfigure or disable a person by use of a corrosive fluid and has been in prison for the past 12 months.
Judge Jennifer English rejected any suggestion Walpole had been provoked when she attacked 22-year-old Mr Loader in an act of ‘destructive and horrifically painful violence’.
Judge English jailed the 24-year-old electrician for a maximum term of seven years and six months last May – but Walpole now insists that sentence is too long.
Walpole alleges Judge English denied her procedural fairness by rejecting the evidence of a forensic psychologist over the link between a mental illness she suffered at the time of the crime and her offending conduct.
Corbie Walpole, who set her childhood friend on fire after he made what she described as misogynistic comments, says she should have been given a more lenient sentence because she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her crime. (Walpole is pictured)
Judge Jennifer English rejected any suggestion Walpole had been provoked when she attacked 22-year-old Jake Loader in an act of ‘destructive and horrifically painful violence’. (Mr Loader is pictured with his partner Annabelle McGee)
She further alleges Judge English failed to take into account a ‘relevant consideration’ that she had developed a serious mental illness ‘as a result of the offending conduct’.
Walpole appeared via audio-visual link from Dillwynia Women’s Correctional Centre in Sydney’s north-west on Monday when her case was heard in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Barrister Philip Boncardo said his client had been suffering a persistent depressive disorder in the year leading up to setting Mr Loader on fire and had been diagnosed with PTSD after the atrocity.
Mr Boncardo said it had been established there was a ‘causal connection’ between Walpole’s offending, and her PTSD represented ‘extra-curial punishment’.
Walpole’s depression had impaired her judgment by reducing her capacity to make rational decisions and consider the consequences of her actions, Mr Boncardo told the court.
Her PTSD symptoms arose immediately after setting Mr Loader alight and the condition was ‘not something she intended to inflict upon herself’.
Mr Boncardo referred Justices Julie Ward, Richard Cavanagh and Richard Weinstein to an unrelated case in which an offender was ‘unintentionally injured’ by injecting battery acid into himself.
Walpole, from Howlong, near Albury on the NSW-Victoria border, had originally hoped to receive a non-custodial punishment for her senseless crime.
Corbie Walpole pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to one count of burn, maim, disfigure or disable a person by use of a corrosive fluid and has been in prison for the past 12 months
Walpole claimed Jake Loader (above) had been antagonising her before she poured five litres of petrol over his head and used a cigarette lighter to turn him into a human torch
She had faced a maximum sentence of 25 years for setting Mr Loader ablaze as he sat on a chair in her backyard at Howlong, about 30km west of Albury, in early 2024.
Walpole and Mr Loader had been friends for at least nine years, having met when Mr Loader went to boarding school at St Paul’s College at Walla Walla, about 40km north of Albury.
Mr Loader, who worked mustering cattle in Queensland, was in Howlong for a short break and joined old friends, including Walpole, for a night out.
Walpole was 23 and Mr Loader was 22 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 found Walpole had been drinking since 5pm, downing bottles of cider, schooners of Canadian Club and Bacardi and cola, and cans of Hard Solo.
Mr Loader suffered third-degree burns to 55 per cent of his body and less severe injuries to an additional six per cent when Corbie Walpole set him alight in her backyard (above)
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. ‘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.
‘He told me to go to the kitchen where I belong because I’m a girl,’ she said. ‘I gave it back to him and called him a misogynist.’
Walpole got up from an outdoor table and went to her garage where she collected a five-litre jerry can of fuel, returned to the table, poured 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.
Judge English rejected Walpole’s claim she was unaware putting a cigarette lighter to a man soaked in petrol would set him ablaze. Walpole is pictured (centre) on the day she was jailed
Mr Loader, who ran around the yard screaming, tried to pull off his shirt but the melted fabric stuck to his skin.
Walpole held her head in her hands and said: ‘What the f*** have I done? He was telling me to do it.’
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.
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.
Judge English rejected any suggestion Walpole – who claimed she had felt ‘challenged and disrespected in her own home’ – was goaded into what she had done.
‘I find that the assault upon the victim was unprovoked,’ the judge said.
An expert estimated Walpole (above) had consumed 23 to 35 standard drinks over 12 hours and would have had a blood alcohol level between 0.22 and 0.38
The court heard Walpole, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm 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 in early 2024, but admitted that was no excuse for setting fire to Mr Loader.
‘Jake didn’t deserve what happened,’ she said.
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’.
Judge English found Walpole had engaged in ‘nothing short of drug and alcohol-fuelled violence’ rather than becoming aggressive due to her depression.
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.
‘It is never easy to send a young person, particularly a young woman, to jail,’ Judge English said.
‘But where appropriate, it is something that must be done.’
Justices Ward, Cavanagh and Weinstein reserved their decision on Walpole’s appeal.
