A woman who set fire to her Didcot home passed her parrot’s cage out the window in order to save the bird’s life.

Katie Jefferies, 35, barricaded the front and back doors with fridges and set light to newspaper strewn around the house, Oxford Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Francis Gaskin said Jefferies had earlier argued with her partner, who told her that he was going on a date with another woman.

The defendant, who had consumed alcohol before setting the fire at the house in Buzzard Rise on December 3 last year, was said to have been trying to take her own life.

Firefighters battered down the front door with a sledgehammer but found their way blocked by a chest fridge freezer. Two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus managed to get past another fridge and a ladder that had been used to barricade the patio door.

Mr Gaskin said: “They found the defendant unconscious on the ground in the bedroom and rescued her.”

A neighbour said she’d seen Jefferies shouting ‘take my bird, I don’t want it to die’. She slid the cage containing the parrot down the roof and the animal was later rescued.

A fire service report said there had been a significant danger to Jefferies’ own life, but neighbours were unlikely to have been in danger if their homes had working smoke alarms.

The blaze did an estimated £50,000 to £60,000-worth of damage to the housing association-owned property.

Sentencing her on Monday, July 26, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: “On December 3 last year you deliberately set fire to your flat after a domestic argument with your then partner. Your objective was to end your life.

“But a moment’s thought would have made you realise that by doing so, that by setting fire to various particular sites in your property, you were endangering the lives of your neighbours and that is something I think you recognise – as you indeed said in your letter to me.”

He imposed a three year community order as a direct alternative to a lengthy prison sentence, telling Jefferies: “In my view you clearly need help.”

As part of the community order, she must complete up to 60 rehabilitation activity requirement days with the probation service and a 12 month alcohol rehabilitation programme. The latter will see her attend regular reviews in front of Judge Pringle.

Mitigating, Kellie Enever said Jefferies had experienced a significant amount of trauma in her life and had been the victim of domestic abuse. She had spent six months on remand and had received treatment for her alcohol addiction. The proper mental health support was only available to her outside prison.

Jefferies, of Loddon Close, Abingdon, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

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