ABSTRACT
In the early hours of Saturday, 15th July 1972, the appellant set fire to a dwelling-house in Coventry by deliberately pouring about a half gallon of petrol through the letterbox and igniting it by means of a newspaper and a match. The house contained four persons, presumably asleep. They were a Mrs. Booth and her three children, a boy and the two young girls who were the subjects of the charges. Mrs. Booth and the boy escaped alive through a window. The appellant had made her way to the house in a van in the early hours of the morning. She took with her a jerry can containing at least half a gallon of petrol. As she passed Mr. Jones's house she carefully made sure that he was in his own home and not with Mrs. Booth, because, as she said, she did not want to do Mr. Jones any harm.
