A woman who doused her husband in petrol and set him on fire as their children watched television nearby claims she’s “not a monster” and “doesn’t belong in a cage”.
Grim details of Geelong woman Angela Surtees’ “disturbing” crimes were aired in the Supreme Court on Friday as Justice Andrew Tinney handed down his sentence.
Surtees, 34, set her husband Daniel on fire as he sat in an armchair at their Geelong home following an argument in January 2020.
She pleaded guilty to manslaughter over Daniel’s gruesome death and will remain behind bars until at least 2029.
The court was told Surettes did not intend to set her husband alight and only wanted him to fear he would catch on fire.
“You alone caused his death by your criminal and outrageous actions,” Justice Tinney said.
“What you did was an extreme overreaction. You lost your temper and allowed yourself to do something quite extraordinary.”
The pair were at an engagement party in Corio on Australia Day 2020 when Daniel, 36, became angry after mistakenly thinking partygoers were making remarks about him, the court was told.
“He talked about fighting other people and made derogatory comments to you in front of your mother,” Justice Tinney told the court.
Surtees and her husband left the party around 7pm and returned home after failed efforts to calm him down.
While they argued in the car he punched the inside of the vehicle.
Later that night, while their children were watching television in the lounge room, Surtees grabbed a jerry can full of fuel and doused her husband with it as he sat in an armchair in the family’s sunroom.
She then threatened him with a cigarette lighter which was “held in close proximity” to Daniel before he burst into blames, the court was told.
Daniel panicked and ran into the front yard while Surtees tried to douse the flames with a hose on the front lawn.
Surtees was described as “calm” when she spoke to triple-0, telling the operator she spilt the petrol over her husband durinxjmtzywg the argument but that it was an accident.
She described the moment Daniel burst into flames as a “cataclysmic fireball”.
The court was told she sent Daniel’s brother letters deflecting blame onto her deceased husband.
During police interviews, Surtees said she had made a “tough guy remark about setting people on fire if they upset her” and the situation escalated.
The court was told that Surtees claimed he was “egging her on”. She then placed the jerry can at his feet and said: “Come on tough guy if you think you’re so smart.”
Surtees told a relative: “I set him on fire … it was really bad” and later claimed she was “not a monster”.
“I don’t belong in a cage,” she said.
The court was told Surtees and her husband had a volatile relationship where they frequently had “screaming matches” that would get “out of hand”.
Defence lawyers argued Surtees was provoked due to sustained family violence during her relationship with the deceased.
But Justice Tinney dismissed those claims.
He said a psychological report revealed Surtees showed signs of PTSD on the night Daniel was killed and their fight demonstrated a “longstanding pattern” of behaviour between the pair, though this wasn’t the cause of her offending.
“Your actions were not driven by mental illness, but in the heat of the moment. (You) acted impulsively,” Justice Tinny said.
Surtees has been sentenced to 12 years behind bars with a non-parole period of eight years.
