A woman whose partner doused her with petrol and set her on fire died more than two decades after the attack partly as a result of the terrible scarring she suffered, a murder jury has been told.
Steven Craig, 58, is accused of the murder of Jacqueline Kirk, who died in hospital in Bath 21 years after he set her alight in a car park in the Somerset seaside town of Weston-super-Mare.
Opening the case at Bristol crown court, Richard Smith KC said the injuries inflicted on Kirk in 1998 were “life-threatening”. She suffered burns to 35% of her body and was in hospital for eight months. She underwent 14 operations including skin grafts and needed a tracheotomy – an opening created at the front of the neck to help breathing.
Two years later, Craig was found guilty of causing Kirk grievous bodily harm and was jailed, the jury heard.
Smith said that in August 2019 Kirk, who was then 61, was taken to the Royal United hospitals Bath with a painfully swollen abdomen and breathing difficulties.
He said because her scarred skin was tight, her stomach and chest could not expand and she suffered a “very rare” rupture to her diaphragm, causing damage to her lungs. Smith added that as she was frail and had many health problems it was judged it was not fair to operate on her and she died the next morning.
He told the jury: “The prosecution says that Jacqueline Kirk’s death all those years later was caused in part at least as a result of the injuries that had been inflicted on her all those years ago when she was so badly burned.
“Because those injuries played a part this defendant is charged with murder. The sole issue in this case is whether or not those injuries inflicted by the defendant did contribute to her death years later.”
Smith said the injuries caused by Craig did not have to be the only cause or the principal reason for Kirk’s death for him to be found guilty of murder. They only had to be a cause.
He said the prosecution argued there were two ways in which the burns she suffered at Craig’s hands played a part in her death. First, that the scarring played a part in the rupture of the diaphragm. Second, that her injuries and poor health played a part in the doctors’ “terrible” decision not to try to repair her diaphragm.
Smith said the pair had been a couple for “three or four years” at the time of the attack. He said the jury would not be shown images of Kirk as they were difficult to look at.
Christopher Tehrani KC, defending, told the court in his opening statement that it was not in dispute that Craig poured petrol over Kirk. He accepted it was a “truly horrific act” intended to cause really serious bodily harm.
Tehrani said the investigation into the cause of her death was “complex and difficult” but he argued the prosecution witnesses were wrong to assert that the scarring was an acceptable explanation for the rupture she suffered.
The barrister also said the defence would argue that the surgeon’s decision not to operate appeared to be based on her frailty and other illnesses such as a failing heart and had nothing to do with the injuries she suffered in 1998.
Craig, from York, denies murder. The trial continues.
