An alcoholic whose girlfriend died two years after he deliberately set her on fire was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years today.

Leigh Pateman doused mother-of-four Ellen Marshall in petrol as she sat in a chair before setting her alight during an argument.

Pateman, 45, was jailed for 17 years and 10 months after he admitted a charge of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, and it was initially hoped Ms Marshall would survive despite her horrific injuries.

But a court heard Ms Marshall died in March 2023 from pneumonia as a result of the injuries inflicted when she was set ablaze almost two years earlier.

The Crown Prosecution Service brought a murder charge against Pateman after Ms Marshall died aged 43 in Nottingham City Hospital and Pateman pleaded guilty to the upgraded charge at a hearing earlier this month.

Judge Simon Hirst told Pateman he was satisfied there was a significant degree of planning to the attack and a pattern of ‘terrifying’ Ms Marshall in the weeks before the attack.

‘You had threatened to pour petrol over her and set her alight, and threatened to kill her,’ Judge Hirst explained.

He told Pateman: ‘Ms Marshall endured the most excruciating pain and suffering from the injuries you inflicted upon her.’

The court heard distressing details of the scene which met fire crews who were called to the couple’s shared house in Skegness, Lincolnshire, by a neighbour at around 10.30pm on April 22 2021 – as Pateman cycled away from the scene.

Once inside, they found the living room covered in black smoke and were alerted to the presence of a woman by a gurgling sound.

Prosecutor Sarah Knight said this led rescuers to Ms Marshall, who was writhing around in ‘extreme pain’.

Firefighters discovered Ms Marshall, who was originally from Nottingham, lying on the floor of the property

‘There was little hair left on her head,’ said Miss Knight. ‘Her face was so badly burnt and scorched it was difficult to make out her facial features.

‘Her body was scorched where her clothes would have been.’

One neighbour described hearing Pateman saying ‘he had set fire to her.’ Another neighbour heard Ms Marshall screaming and saw Pateman carrying sauces of water to put on Ms Marshall, before he cycled away as the fire crews arrived.

Ms Marshall suffered burns to her face, neck, abdomen, chest and limbs, lost several fingers and sustained serious eye injuries in the attack.

Upon admission to hospital she required mechanical ventilation and her chance of survival was then placed at less than 50 per cent.

She had suffered 80 per cent burns and was taken to Nottingham City Hospital, before being transferred to a specialist burns unit.

Miss Knight said Pateman had made a previous threat to set his partner on fire and had kept the petrol at his property, but she did not believe him.

A neighbour confirmed she had overheard Pateman threatening to set Ms Marshall ‘alight’ several weeks earlier, and a fire reconstruction expert concluded the blaze had been deliberately started using an accelerant.

Pateman was found at his mother’s house, where he had gone to bed, covered in soot.

He was arrested and treated for burns before being taken into police custody. A mug shot showed his nose and hair still singed from the fire.

Pateman was sentenced at Lincoln Crown Court via via a video link from HMP Garth where he is currently serving his sentence.

Wearing a black and white t-shirt, he spoke only to confirm his name and showed little emotion as sentence was passed.

A moving impact statement from Ms Marshall’s daughter, Paige Clarke, was read out in court.

Ms Clarke described how despite her burns Ms Marshall kept fighting to be a mum to her four children and to one day hold her first grandchild.

But Ms Clarke added ‘that day will now never come.’

‘She became weaker and weaker as the days went by, but even then she was so strong of heart,’ Miss Clarke explained.

‘The physical, mental and emotional pain that my mother had to go through is almost impossible to put into words,’ Miss Clarke said.

‘She could not bear to look at herself for a year.’

Pateman was told he would have been sentenced to a minimum term of 27 years imprisonment but had already served over three years in custody. He was told he would serve a minimum of 24 years and 145 days.

At the plea hearing, the judge had remarked that the case ‘isn’t a stranger to me’, having previously sentenced Patemen on the GBH charge.

Katherine Goddard KC, defending Pateman, said there was ‘no intention to kill, only to cause grievous bodily harm’

Following Pateman’s sentencing in 2022, a spokesman for Lincolnshire Police described it as ‘one of the worst cases of domestic violence we have seen.’