[nomis]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.c...jectid=10522279

Woman jailed for burning wheelchair ramp
12:40PM Friday July 18, 2008

A Gisborne woman who set fire to her disabled neighbour's wheelchair ramp was today jailed for three years.

Irene Daphne Watson, 45, a sickness beneficiary, was sentenced in Wellington District Court after earlier admitting arson endangering life.

In December last year, Watson moved into a flat in Gisborne, next door to the disabled women.

The woman loaned Watson her spare wheelchair after she said she had a lumbar spine injury and could not walk, Crown prosecutor Kate Feltham said.

When the neighbour later saw Watson walking around in her home she asked for the return of her wheelchair.

Watson then became verbally abusive and threatened to murder her.

The next morning, the neighbour was awakened by smoke alarms and discovered her wheelchair ramp was on fire.

Ms Feltham said although the target had been the wheelchair ramp, the fire could have spread and the consequences could have been "tragic".

She said the neighbour was vulnerable because she was a paraplegic - the ramp was the entrance and exit to her home.

[topperf]

People just never seize to amaze, now do they...

[kewlcatkez]

What a fruit loop... as mad as a box of frogs...
Scary!!!
It smacks a bit of that Movie "single white female" where the girl moving in tries to become her room mate! ...and then when she is bubbled, resorts to bunny boiling antics...

K

[StellaLAtella]

Irene Daphne Watson, 45, a sickness beneficiary



What exactly is a sickness beneficiary? Is that like Mentally Ill?
Just curious, I'd not heard that term before here.
Thanks,
Stella

[nomis]

A term used in New Zealand by Social Welfare for a living income paid to a person unable to work who is defined as sick - which means one day they'll recover. A beneficiary with a permanent disability receives an Invalids Benefit.

[Kwag_Myers]

I think she should have been sentenced to doing the neighbor's program for three years - with her nose. And rebuild the ramp at her own expense, of course.

[Emily C]

It's despecitable, but I[m glad that she got some jail time!!!

[fatdave]

well for the next three years she wont need and sickness benefits. i dont know about new zealand but he in the U.S. prisoners get better health care than some of the law-abiding folk. my father is in prison for 20 - 25 years and has gotten his teeth fixed, a hearing aid and surgery to fix a nose that works just fine but was broken in a fight he stared, and not only that the department of corrections are paying for his racist tattoo's to be removed!

[Travelling Blackbird]

Oh. My. GOD. That's insane. What sickness is the woman a beneficiary for? It must be some kind of all out psychosis.

[brainandspinalcord]

I'm just happy the fire didn't spread to her home. This woman must really be sick if she could set fire to another person's home, knowing full well the "escape route" would be destroyed. I think 3 years is a fairly light sentence for what sounds like attempted murder!

[edlee]

Keep in mind that there is a large population of people whose grasp on reality is shaky, at best.

Hell,,,, we've got some here,,,, but , hopefully, not as far out as that one.

Here, we have laws that preclude the death penalty for those who commit murder and are mentally challenged,,,,,as tho murdering someone isn't a sign of insanity,,,,,