'I’m going to murder you' Scots woman set on fire in doorstep lighter fuel attack relives ordeal in plea to parole board

Anne Crossan has written to the Parole Board for Scotland begging them to keep Stewart Watson caged.

A thug who set a woman on fire on her doorstep in a brutal attempt to murder her is to be considered for early release in October.

But victim Anne Crossan, 51, scarred for life in the attack, has written to the Parole Board for Scotland pleading them to keep Stewart Watson caged.

Watson – known in Polbeth, West Lothian, where he lived as Wad – was convicted of attempted murder at the High Court in Livingston in July 2016.

Anne Crossan's letter to the Parole Board

"I’m going to murder you, you fat cow.”

I’ll never forget those words.

It’s what Stewart John Watson said to me two months before the night he walked up to my front door holding a can of lighter fluid and a lighter, and then set me on fire.

I didn’t want to open the door to him that night. I was running a bath at the time. But he spoke nicely to me from the other side of the door, saying he needed to speak to me about his girlfriend, who I was friendly with and who had often shared details of their abusive relationship.

I’d always felt bad for her, had listened to her stories and her pain. I thought maybe she was in danger or that something bad had happened.

So, I stupidly opened the door. And that’s when he sprayed lighter fluid all over my face and shoulders and set me alight, while saying, “F**k you, b***h.”

His actions were clearly premeditated. He had come to murder me, to make good on his promise of two months prior.

He even convinced me to open the door under false pretences – the welfare of his girlfriend. And if it hadn’t been for me wearing my glasses I would have been blinded.

And if it weren’t for the fact that I was running a bath at the time I probably would be dead.

At court, he showed no remorse for his actions.

During sentencing he looked over at me and then at the Judge and said: “This is a joke,” while clapping his hands as he was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison.

The judge was so enraged by his behaviour that he ordered his lawyer to take him down from the stand and only bring him back when he had calmed down, warning that he would order an even longer sentence if he didn’t behave.

And rather than spare me any more trauma by admitting his guilt, he put me through the anguish of going to court in my condition and reliving everything that had happened, making me endure cross-examination for the actions he committed, while watching as I was shown the pictures of the damage and disfigurement that he inflicted on me.

His attempt on my life left me with around 30 per cent of my body covered in third degree burns, around my face and shoulder.

I was in an induced coma for two weeks thereafter and remained in hospital for a further four weeks.

The physical pain I went through was excruciating.

I had several plastic procedures and even had to learn to talk and swallow again after my throat was temporarily paralysed from the tube that was used to help me breathe.

The laser treatments to reduce the lumpy scarring as a result of the burns that covered me lasted a further nine months.

But that is just the physical suffering.

My life is now irreparably changed. I don’t sleep much and I suffer from PTSD. And while I felt slightly safer in the knowledge that he was behind bars, I am even now beginning to feel the effects of thinking he might be released.

I believe beyond any doubt that his intentions now are the very same as the night he tried to kill me.

For these reasons, I vehemently disagree with any decision or notion that Stewart John Watson be released early.

And I would absolutely wish to make separate representations should he be considered for home detention curfew.

He was sentenced a month later to eight-and-a-half years for the attack, carried out on September 4, 2015.

Watson, now 41, had threatened to kill Anne after she told her friend, who was dating him, he had been tested for HIV and for Hepatitis B and C because of drug use.

Former model Anne, wanted to make sure her friend knew so she could keep herself safe but as she spoke to her on the phone, Watson’s voice came on the line, threatening her.

Two months later, Anne had run herself a bath in her home, which at time was not far from Watson’s, when he knocked at her door.

She didn’t want to let him in but he said he wanted to talk to her about her friend, who he was still seeing.

Concerned that her friend might be in danger, Anne opened the door, had lighter fluid thrown over her face and seconds later found herself on fire.

She said: “I was screaming in pain and shock. He swore at me and turned and walked away.

“I ran inside screaming and plunged my head, which was ablaze, into the bath. Thank God the bath had been full or I might have been dead. My hair was coming out in clumps all over the floor and coffee table as I dialled 999.

“I was in agony and a state of total fear and panic.” Lucky to survive,
Anne has been
through gruelling ­treatment and moved away from the area for safety.

Having been sentenced to more than four years in prison, Watson is entitled to apply for release at half sentence.

If unsuccessful, he will be released ­automatically two-thirds of the way through his sentence.

Time spent on remand before trial is taken into account, so Watson will be free by about this time next year, but if his application for early release fails, he is almost certain to apply for a Home Detention Curfew to spend his last three months at home on a tag.

Anne said: “I’ve always known he would be free one day and I’ve always believed he is the sort of person to blame me for his troubles rather than himself for his ­despicable actions.

“I chose to move away. I don’t want to see him again and I don’t want to live in fear that he will come looking to finish the job. I will be terrified when he is released. I don’t want him home early on a tag and will oppose that.

“He tried to kill me in one of the most cowardly and brutal ways you can kill someone, burning me alive. I want him to spend as much of that sentence in jail as possible to give me peace of mind.

“I won’t feel safe when he is out. I’ll be looking over my shoulder all the time. Surely the justice system owes victims of such brutal crimes an ­obligation at the very least to make the people who hurt them stay in prison for as long as the sentence allows?”

The Parole Board for Scotland and Scottish Prison Service never comment on individual cases.