A man has been jailed for at least ten-and-a-half years after the woman he was obsessed with was doused in accelerant and set alight in inner-city Sydney, in what a Judge called another example of gratuitous violence on a female.

Mohammed Ali Fouani recruited a teenager to carry out the “cruel and cowardly” attack as the victim walked to work at Chippendale in 2012.

CCTV shows the woman, who we cannot identify, moving along Chippen Lane followed by the boy who is dressed in a dark hoodie and carrying a milk carton of accelerant.

Mohammed Ali Fouani has been jailed for at least 10.5 years for recruiting a teenager to set his girlfriend alight in 2012. (Supplied) (Supplied)

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Off screen, he grabs her, tosses the liquid over her and uses a cigarette lighter to ignite it.

He is then seen running back down the lane.

CCTV shows the woman walking along Chippen Lane in Chippendale before she is grabbed by a boy dressed in a dark hoodie. (Supplied) (Supplied)

The teen then douses the woman in accelerant before setting her alight. (Supplied) (Supplied)

The boy referred to by the pseudonym Sam had been recruited by Mohammed Ali Fouani to carry out the attack on his girlfriend to scare her.

“When you throw the petrol at her legs, make sure you still snatch her bag as well,” he told Sam in the minutes beforehand.

Bizarrely, he returned to the crime scene later, claiming he wanted to surprise his girlfriend, and forced the teenager to call both police and 2GB radio to claim responsibility for the attack.

Judge Peter Whitford today said although he did not physically carry out the attack he might as well have.

The 17-year-old teen, recruited by Fouani, is seen running from the scene as the victim screams for help (Supplied). (Supplied)

“The offender was the architect of the enterprise which was planned in a cold and calculated fashion,” Judge Whitford said.

He said Fouani came up with the idea after he concluded the victim would not leave her job as a prostitute to be with him.

“This is yet another example of gratuitous violence being inflicted upon a woman by a man who obsessively claims some right to her affection or attention,” he added.