Truckie faces penalty over horrific petrol attack on his partner

A WOMAN terribly burned by her violent partner has bravely faced her attacker in court as a judge sentenced him to serve 10 years in prison.

A WOMAN terribly burned by her violent partner has bravely faced her attacker in court as a judge sentenced him to serve 10 years in prison.

Flanked a large group of her family, friends and supporters, Leesa Jacobs looked on from the public gallery of the Supreme Court as Justice David Porter delivered justice to truck driver Michael John Price, 45, for one of the one of the most shocking cases of domestic violence to come before Tasmanian courts in recent years.

The Austins Ferry man will spend at least six years in jail for dousing Ms Jacobs with petrol and setting her alight.

MORE: NO EXPLANATION FOR IMPULSIVE ACT OF VIOLENCE

“Your actions have consigned Ms Jacobs to a lifetime of pain and suffering, physically and emotionally,” the judge said.

Price had earlier pleaded guilty to committing an unlawful act intended to cause grievous bodily harm and three counts of assault.

Justice Porter said the crime warranted a 10-year-maximum term with a six-year minimum non-parole period.

“These incidents are serious examples of domestic violence,” Justice Porter told Price.

“They represent an escalation of violence over the period and the last incident in particular, of course, is appalling.

“It involves an actual intention to disfigure and to do grievous bodily harm, and it is a very serious example of this type of crime.”

The court heard Price’s ultimate act of violence came after a series of attacks in which Ms Jacobs was punched, choked, knocked to the ground and had her wrist broken.

She was making plans to leave Price, when on June 17 last year the couple had an argument in the garage of the home they shared.

Price, who was drunk, said : “I’m going to pour petrol over you and light you.” Ms Jabobs replied: “Don’t be stupid”.

He held up a five litre petrol container and doused her. Then he flicked his lighter and she was engulfed in flames.

In her victim impact statement read out in court, Ms Jacobs described how she will be forever haunted by images of her body on fire, of her skin and flesh falling from her body and her clothes melting away.

Price then dropped the container, spilling more petrol which caused burns her legs.

He was arrested soon after nearby. “I f***ed up real bad,” he told officers.

Ms Jacobs was taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where she was put in an induced coma for 12 days with burns to 25 per cent of her body.

The court heard she continues to deal with the physical and psychological complications of the attack.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple zero.