A spurned lover who poured petrol on his ex-girlfriend and turned her into a human FIREBALL because she dumped him has been found guilty of attempted murder.
Damion Sheldon, 42, attacked Louise Pilkington, 31, after she finished their relationship on December 2 last year.
Witnesses told police they even heard pretty Louise’s skin SIZZLE as she tried to put out the flames.
On neighbour who tried to help Louise told Wolverhampton Crown Crown the attack resembled “something from a horror film”.
On Wednesday Damion was found guilty of attempted murder.
Adjourning sentencing, Judge John Warner told Sheldon: “You are looking at a long period in custody.”
During the trial, the court heard Sheldon, of Dudley, West Mids., attacked Louise the day after his birthday.
He sent a text message to Louise telling her: “Thanks love. You have destroyed me. You have destroyed me.”
He then went to the mum-of-two’s terraced home in Halesowen, West Mids., where he poured petrol through the letter box.
But Louise was woken by the sound of her dog barking and she went downstairs to open the front door, jurors were told.
Giving evidence, Louise said she was confronted by Sheldon who grabbed her bed jacket, poured petrol over her head and
set her alight.
She told the jury: “I was woken up by my dog Jess barking.
“I went downstairs and I smelled petrol. I said ‘Oh My God’ and opened the front door.
“Damion was in front of me. I lunged forward to push him away.
“He went back but he grabbed hold of my bed jacket and he started tipping petrol over me.
“I was shouting ‘No, no, no.’
“He set me alight. I took my jacket off and I dropped to the floor.
“When I was rolling around on the floor I was screaming for help.
“Before I dropped to the floor I could see myself in her window.
“My hair was on fire. It was pain like I’d never felt.”
Louise then tore off her pyjamas and rolled on the grass outside the house naked in a desperate attempt to douse the flames as neighbours gathered to try to help.
One neighbour later told police: “She just looked like a fireball. It was like something out of a horror film.
“It was horrendous because her head and body were on fire.”
As she fled with her nine-year-old child Sheldon set fire to the house where her 13-month-old baby was asleep, the court heard.
Louise sobbed as she told how firemen fought for five minutes to revive her baby which she thought was dead, after neighbours had tried in vain to rescue the tot.
Prosecutor Hugh O’Brien-Quinn said Sheldon
launched the attack because he could not accept their nine-month relationship was over and was “consumed by anger and self-pity”.
He said: “He then poured the petrol over her head and upper body. Having covered her with the petrol, he deliberately set her alight.
“She tried to push him away and shouted for help.”
Louise suffered 16 per cent burns to her face and body but had since recovered “remarkably well” from her injuries.
Sheldon was remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month