Woman ‘was so obsessed with fire after saving her family from blaze she became serial arsonist and killed pensioner’
Care assistant Karen Pedley was hailed for her heroics in rescuing her relatives but now faces a charge of murder
A CARER who became obsessed with fire after saving her family from a blaze became a serial arsonist and killed a woman aged 96 in a care home, a court heard.
Karen Pedley, 43, was hailed for her heroics in rescuing her relatives and won a trip on Concorde in recognition of her bravery.
But a jury heard the incident sparked a decade-long obsession that ended in tragedy and alleged murder at the care home where she was an assistant.
Pedley is charged with starting the fire at the Rosewyn House care home in Truro, Cornwall in November 2008 which caused the death of Gladys Rowe.
She is also accused of starting a series of other blazes at various locations over an eight or nine-year period.
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Prosecuting, Nigel Lickley told Truro Crown Court that her fascination with fire started when she saved her family from a blaze at their home.
It resulted in her winning the special flight and the opportunity to meet the captain.
Mr Lickley said: "The charges relate back to 2001 and 2002 and seemingly came to an end in 2010.
"Each allegation relates to the deliberate lighting of fires and it was in November 2008 when you worked as a care assistant that you went into the bedroom of two elderly residents at Rosewyn House and set fire to the curtains before leaving the room.
"Gladys Rowe died as a consequence of smoke inhalation.
"Ms Pedley set out before the fatal fire to make an impression of an electrical fault which she had actually caused herself.
"The damaging of the electrical cables shows a plan forming in her mind and how she believed she could get away with the crime."
He added: "By determining where Ms Pedley worked and when, a picture began to emerge of the systematic setting of fires.
"The fires relate to employment, grievances and disputes and were in some cases a reaction to criticism."
The jury heard that both Mrs Rowe and her roommate Joan Olive Ray used walking devices and had problems with mobility.
Mr Lickley also told the court how Pedley was often the first person to report the fires and was present when the fire service arrived, speculating as to how they started.
He also alleged that she threatened a co-worker to tell a false story to police or else she would "burn her house down".
Mr Lickley said there was a more recent instance of a fire being set in Pedley's prison cell.
In relation to that incident she had already pleaded guilty to starting the blaze and causing an evacuation, he told the jury.
Lickley is also accused of starting fires at two domestic properties, in one of which a teenage boy was in bed upstairs recovering following an operation.
She also allegedly started them at a local Seafarers Centre, another nursing home and at a social club.
The court heard that several of the properties were her former places of work.
Pedley, of Carharrack, Cornwall, who was absent from court for the opening of the trial, faces a total of 15 charges.
They include murder, attempted murder, three counts of arson, two counts of arson with intent to endanger life and eight counts of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.
She denies all the charges and the trial continues.
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