Angela Surtees appeals sentence over death of husband Daniel Surtees
A woman who killed her husband after accidentally setting him on fire after an argument had a “complex” relationship with him, a court has heard.
A woman who accidentally killed her husband after setting him on fire while their children watched TV in the next room has sought to have her jail term reduced.
Geelong woman Angela Surtees pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of her husband, Daniel Surtees, whom she accidentally set alight after dousing him in petrol following an argument at their home on January 25, 2020.
In March last year, Surtees was sentenced to 12 years jail by Justice Andrew Tinney in the Victorian Supreme Court, eight of which must be served before she can be eligible for parole.
In the Court of Appeal on Monday, Julia Munster, representing Surtees, sought leave to appeal the sentence imposed by Justice Tinney. She told the court the offence needed to be seen in light of the “complex” relationship between the couple and the “highly charged” environment it occurred in.
The Surtees had two children together and had been in a relationship for 10 years before Mr Surtees’ death.
In his sentencing remarks last year, Justice Tinney said they shared a “volatile” relationship in which Mr Surtees had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner in 2017.
On the day of the attack the Surtees, their two children and a third child from a previous relationship of Ms Surtees attended an engagement party in Corio hosted by her brother.
At the party, Mr Surtees got drunk, talked about fighting other guests, and made derogatory comments to his wife in front of her mother and stepfather that led to the couple and three children leaving the party at about 7pm.
The pair continued to argue when they arrived home and, as the children watched TV in the loungeroom, Surtees poured a jerry can of unleaded petrol onto her husband as he sat in an armchair in the sunroom of their Whittington home.
After Mr Surtees lunged at her, she pushed him back into the chair and threatened him with a cigarette lighter before he suddenly burst into flames.
The prosecution case did not contend Surtees intended to set Mr Surtees on fire.
Mr Surtees ran to the front yard and fell onto the ground, with one of the children reportedly observing an orange glow, before a triple-0 call was made shortly before 8.30pm while Surtees sprayed her alert but agonised husband with a garden hose.
Mr Surtees was rushed to Geelong University Hospital that night but died at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne the following day, having suffered deep burns to 80 per cent of his body, according to an autopsy.
On Monday, Ms Munster told the court that the manslaughter “didn’t occur in a vacuum” but in the context of the Surtees’ “complex relationship”.
She said the offence was not premeditated but rather a series of small steps that escalated in a “highly charged” situation.
Ms Munster also said the sentence gave insufficient weight to Surtees’ guilty plea, her lack of prior convictions, what the court heard was a difficult upbringing and the good prospects she had shown for rehabilitation.
Brendan Kissane KC, representing the Office of Public Prosecutions, said the sentence was “well within range” for what was “extremely serious and appalling offending”.
Justices Stephen Kaye, Kristen Walker and Emilios Kyrou reserved their decision.