Arsonist Kate Burns begged a judge to send her to prison after she tried to burn down a homeless hostel in a cry for help, writes Nick Evans.

The 27-year-old schizophrenic, with a history of severe mental illness, set fire to the hostel in Abingdon Road, Oxford, in January after a string of suicide attempts, Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday.

But the judge, Mr Justice Astill, ignored her plea and sent her to Marlborough House Hospital, a medium secure unit for the mentally ill in Milton Keynes.

Christopher Cousins, prosecuting, said Burns used a cigarette lighter to set fire to a plastic bag full of paper and a carpet at midnight on January 31. Burns, formerly of Northside, Steeple Aston, pleaded guilty to arson. Mr Cousins told the court: "Once the fire had ignited and the block of flats was evacuated, the defendant approached a fireman and admitted starting the fire. She was arrested by police and told them she started it because she needed help.

"She said she had phoned her GP, but he would not help her. She had just been released from hospital, where she was having mental treatment, and she was feeling suicidal."

Mr Cousins said Burns handed the police a written note admitting the arson, which read simply: "All I wanted was help. I am sorry."

Paul Brooks, defending, said: "She was panicky and felt she had no support. She consumed seven days of her medication that night to try to alleviate her problems. "She phoned the doctor and told him she was feeling suicidal, but was told to call back the next day. That night she committed the offence."

He added: "This was a cry for help."

Mr Brooks said he was instructed to ask the judge not to send her back to hospital but to jail her instead.

The judge told her: "I am satisfied that you are suffering from mental illness that makes it appropriate to send you to hospital for medical treatment. I hope you get better."

Earlier this year, the Oxford Mail highlighted the case when Banbury MP Tony Baldry wrote to Health Secretary Frank Dobson. Burns had been held in Eastwood Park prison, Gloucestershire, after her arrest because there was no hospital bed available for her.

Mr Baldry complained that Burns should not have been sent to jail and criticised prison and health authority officials for failing to provide her with appropriate treatment.

He told the minister: "The prison system takes no responsibility whatsoever for her mental care or provision. That is seen as the responsibility of the Oxfordshire Helath Authority."

He described her as a victim of "cost-shunting".

Story date: Saturday 15 May

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