A woman with mental health problems who set fire to her Biggleswade home was rescued by her son.
Donna Windwood, now 50, had been self-harming with cigarettes in her upstairs bedroom at the two-bed Housing Association property in Heather Drive when the blaze started.
Her mother heard the fire detector go off and smelt smoke, but could not enter the locked room.
She called her 20-year-old grandson who kicked in the door and carried his mother outside to safety, Luton Crown Court heard on Thursday, September 29, 2022.
Prosecutor Douglas Page said the fire brigade were called at about 9pm on Friday, June 26, 2020 to put out the blaze. He said there was significant damage to the front bedroom, smoke damage to the bathroom and to the kitchen.
The Rivermead Housing Association had not put a value on the damage. Ms Winwood was taken to hospital where she was treated for smoke inhalation.
She was discharged from hospital and arrested. When questioned by the police the next day, June 27, she made no comment.
Mr Page said that on the day before the fire she had overdosed on her prescribed medication and had been taken to accident and emergency. In a basis of plea put before the court she said she was at home in her bedroom, having consumed alcohol and was self-harming by burning her feet with cigarettes.
She said she did not intend to damage property or endanger life.
Winwood, of Tristan Close, Calshot, Southampton, appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty, on the day her trial was due to start, to arson being reckless as to whether the lives of her mother and son were endangered.
Defending, John Lamb said: “At the time she was struggling with her own acute mental health breakdown. She thought her phone and electrical equipment were being monitored.” In the two years since the offence she had built a new life in the New Forest, where she has a partner and is being seen by the community mental health team.
She had not committed any more offences, he said. Judge Alan Blake told her: “It is a real mercy that you or anyone in your household did not suffer serious injury or worse.” He sentenced her to 22 months in jail suspended for 24 months with a condition that she attends 20 rehabilitation days.
The judge added: “It is hoped that with the support of the community mental health team and probation the risk of you reoffending remains low.”
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