“I’m left with a body that no longer feels like mine.”
Those were the words of a woman who had fuel poured on her head, and was set on fire at a Shepparton home.
Jordan Spencer, 34, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence.
Prosecutor John Dickie told the court Spencer threw a bowl of petrol on a 20-year-old woman’s head, and used a jet lighter to set her alight outside her Shepparton home on January 15, 2024.
She was engulfed in flames for 64 seconds.
Both women were airlifted to hospital in Melbourne.
In an emotional victim impact statement, the now-22-year-old woman who suffered “very significant burns” to 30 per cent of her body, described the incident to the court as “the day her life changed forever”.
“I remember the sensation of fire singeing my skin,” she said.
“Every time I close my eyes I relive that moment.”
The victim was in an induced coma for three-and-a-half months at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne and has since had multiple surgeries.
She said when she woke up from her coma, she was barely able to move and couldn’t speak.
She said she used to be outgoing and confident, but was now constantly overwhelmed by fear, unbearable pain that “never stops” and frustration.
“I miss the way I use to be, I’d give anything to be my old self,” she said.
“What happened to me should never happen to anyone.
“She didn’t just burn my body, she destroyed a part of my spirit.”
Mr Dickie told the court the victim was “volatile and upset” when she first arrived at Spencer’s home, looking for Spencer’s partner who she’d met earlier that day, wanting to know where her e-scooter was.
The court heard she threw a rubbish bin at the front door, and later threw a rock, and brick at a window.
During a “scuffle” between the two women, Spencer threw the bowl of fuel over the victim’s face, pushed her to the ground, and she “immediately caught alight” after Spencer used the jet lighter, Mr Dickie said.
The victim’s mother read an impact statement to the court.
She said seeing her daughter “unrecognisable” in the intensive care unit in hospital would “forever be etched into my mind”.
Mr Dickie read a victim impact statement from a neighbour, who, after witnessing the incident, said he “can’t get the vision of someone being on fire... out of my mind”.
Spencer’s defence barrister James McQuillan told the court anger played a primary role in why his client acted the way she did.
He said petrol was already in the bowl Spencer used, because her partner told her to use it and a lighter to defend herself if anyone caused trouble.
Mr McQuillan said Spencer had experienced a “deprived, dysfunctional and disadvantaged childhood”, witnessing domestic violence against her mother, who also asked her to leave home at 14 years old, deepening fears of abandonment and rejection.
He also told the court said Spencer suffered with a major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Justice Andrew Tinney said lighting someone on fire was a “shockingly serious and heartless” means of causing serious injury.
The plea hearing will continue when Spencer next faces court in August.