A Tayside sex killer who put her neighbours lives in danger by torching her home has been ordered to carry out 300 hours unpaid work in the community.
Victoria Kydd, who set fire to the house in a bid to “burn her old life,” has also been placed under social work supervision for three years.
Kydd stuffed paper and clothes into pans on her cooker and set fire to them.
The blaze was extinguished by heroic passers-by who spotted smoke and flames.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told when the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were at the scene Kydd tried to torch the flat for a second time.
Kydd, 43, had previously served a five-year prison sentence for stabbing her lover to death when he refused to have sex with her.
Twice set fires in flat
Fiscal depute Gavin Burton told the court the fireraising incident began after Kydd had an argument with her partner of three years and threw him out of her flat.
Passers-by later heard a smoke alarm and looked up to see flames belching out of one of a window.
They entered the flat in Newburgh, which was full of smoke and saw pots full of clothes and paper on top of the hob.
The brave duo put the fire out and searched the flat but could not find anyone.
They heard smashing glass and discovered Kydd breaking windows and causing shards of glass to fall into the street.
Firefighters arrived and discovered the burnt clothing in the sink.
Kydd refused to come out of her bedroom but asked one of the firefighters for a glass of water.
Moments later he heard the fire alarm again and went back upstairs to discover Kydd standing over the cooker with a new batch of smouldering blankets.
Kydd then threw a lit cigarette at a police officer as he approached to arrest her and he had to stamp it out after it landed on a pile of clothing on the floor and caught fire.
Police assaults
The court was told Kydd – who continued to cause a disturbance at Dundee police HQ – had caused around £2,000 worth of damage to the rented flat in which she had lived for two years.
Solicitor Catriona Clark, defending, said: “She has had issues with alcohol in the past.
“On release from her previous sentence she was in employment for eight years and was settled.”
Kydd, from Dundee, admitted culpably and recklessly endangering lives by setting fire to clothing, blankets and paper at her former home in Newburgh High Street on 5 January.
She admitted attacking PC Callum Bawden by throwing a lit cigarette at him, lunging towards him and striking him on the body, and assaulting PC Kirstie Haddow by kicking her on the body repeatedly.
Killed lover in Dundee
In 2006, the High Court in Edinburgh heard how Kydd stabbed 32-year-old John Lofthouse to death when he refused to have sex with her.
The court was told she had donned stockings and lingerie to seduce him after a row but flew into a rage when he spurned her advances.
Kydd – who claimed her lover had walked onto the blade – stabbed him through the heart hours after they had decided to move in together.
She was originally charged with murder but was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
The court heard they had a stormy relationship and argued on the day of the killing about a plan to go to his mum’s home to look after her dogs.
Edgar Prais QC said: “Mr Lofthouse went down to nearby licensed premises to get something to drink and to bring something home.
“When he left Kydd changed into what she tells me was sexy lingerie.
“She had hopes that, with that, she could change the atmosphere.”
Kydd’s plan didn’t work and the row continued.
She went to the kitchen to make herself some cheese and oatcakes, and picked up a knife.
Kydd, then of Abernyte, Perthshire, pled guilty to the killing at Mr Lofthouse’s flat in Blackness Road, Dundee.
Judge Lord Kinclaven said the victim’s family had been left devastated by his loss.
