A PENSIONER has been jailed for two years for starting a fire in her marital home.
Jennifer Bullen, aged 67, took a lighter to a quilt in a bedroom after a row with her husband, a court heard.
She later told police that she had been "attention seeking".
Peter Bullen smelt smoke and started up the stairs to look for his wife, Plymouth Crown Court heard.
But she had already left the end-of-terrace home in Barne Barton.
Mr Bullen, who is terminally ill, needed treatment for smoke inhalation.
The bedroom was severely damaged by fire and the rest of the house severely smoke-logged, the court heard.
Jailing her for two years, Judge Jeremy Griggs said: "I have no doubt that this was, in some ways, a cry for help. Arson is an offence which causes the public particular anxiety."
He said neighbours, particularly an eight-year-old girl, had been left unable to sleep in the nights after the fire.
Bullen pleaded guilty to arson reckless as to whether life was endangered in Berthon Road, Barne Barton, on September 18.
Deni Mathews, for the Crown Prosecution Services, said the couple had been married for 44 years.
He added that Bullen, appearing drunk, had called the police that night asking to be arrested but no officers were sent to the house.
Mr Mathews added that the couple had a row and Mr Bullen was downstairs when he smelt smoke upstairs.
He said he tried to go upstairs with a neighbour to find Bullen but they noticed she was already outside.
Mr Mathews said firefighters quickly extinguished the fire and it did not spread to three neighbouring terraced homes.
The court heard that Bullen was of good character until a recent spate of offending.
A psychiatrist has told the court in a report that she does not have a treatable mental health condition.
But Bullen's barrister Michael Green said: "She is unable to give any logical rational reason for what she did."
He added that she had repeatedly called the emergency services in the weeks up to the fire.
Mr Green said that her husband was terminally ill and the length of any prison sentence "weighed heavily" upon her.
He added: "The other issue is alcohol and it played a role, of that there is no doubt."
Mr Green said she had done a course since going to prison in September to tackle her drinking.
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