Sandra Lee Cootes pleads guilty
Footage in court showed the then 54-year-old New Zealander, Sandra Lee Cootes, as she threatened to burn the yacht by holding a flame over it, The Courier Mail reported.
The burning item she held dropped into the petrol and the flames rapidly spread.
“Jump in the water now … do you want to die, get in the water now”, local police officers told Cootes.
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She was then rescued by police and taken to hospital with serious burns.
She appeared in Mackay District Court via videolink earlier this month and pleaded guilty to arson as a domestic violence offence.
The court heard Cootes and the victim had been in a rocky 18-month relationship.
In the days leading up to the arson , she was hospitalised for taking pills, The Courier Mail reported.
She was released from hospital on the morning of the offence, where she met up with her former partner and an argument escalated, which led to the blaze being ignited.
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