Petrol bomb bid to kill ex-lover

JESSICA Albison

A paranoid schizophrenic set fire to a house with three children inside in a bid to kill her ex-boyfriend.

Jessica Albison (20), formerly of Napier Road East, Coppice, has now been detained in a secure hospital for the safety of the public after admitting arson with intent to endanger life.

She had been targeting her former boyfriend Dave O’Connnor who she admitted wanting to kill.

Mr O’Connnor had been staying with friend Steve Harrison, his wife Alison and their three children aged 12, six and five, in Browning Road, Derker when Albison struck last September.

She initially attacked Mr Harrison with a bottle of vodka outside the house.

After being arrested, she shouted “Wait until I get out, I am coming here. Your house is going to be petrol bombed with you and your kids in it.”

She had turned up in a drunken rage at 11pm looking for Mr O’Connor — who wasn’t there the time — before police arrested her and took her to the Royal Oldham Hospital.

When later released she returned to the house, lit a petrol-soaked rag and posted it through the letter box, with the intention of killing Mr O’Connor and everyone in the house.

In a statement to police Albison said: “I fully intended to kill Dave O’Connor and would be delighted if someone else did it for me.”

Albison has a history of violent behaviour towards Mr O’Connor. In a previous incident in 2012, Mr O’Connor locked himself in the bathroom at Brownlee Road, Oldham, following an argument. Albison hacked at the door 27 times with a knife to get to him before slashing him in the upper left arm and leaving a one-inch wound.

She was given a community-based psychiatric treatment order which she failed to complete.

This time the same judge, Jonathan Foster QC sent her to a secure hospital for an indefinite period.

Dr Fareed Bashir, consultant forensic psychiatrist at Prestwich Hospital, confirmed that Albison suffers from paranoid schizophrenia which often causes her to lose touch with her personality.

Dr Bashir said: “She is quite open to expressing violent acts, even now. So the risk going forward to the public would be quite high.”