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A cocaine addict who set fire to her partner’s apartment in a block of city centre flats was given a suspended prison sentence.

Amy Williamson, 23, set a duvet belonging to her boyfriend Paul Gallagher on fire at the Albany Building on Old Hall Street, on May 30, after being let in by the night porter.

Derek Jones, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court how she had been arguing with Mr Gallagher and when he left briefly she lit the duvet with a lighter she had found there.

Police and the fire brigade were called and the fire was put out.

Williamson, a mother of one, was arrested after confessing: “I started it in the living room. I know I shouldn’t have but I just wanted him to know how hurt I was. I can’t believe I set fire to it.”

Williamson, of Eskburn Road, Tuebrook was held on remand for four months ahead of her sentencing hearing.

She pleaded guilty to arson being reckless where life was endangered.

Rachel Oakdene, defending, said: “This is a desperately sad case. This is a young lady not without talent.

“She is a single mother of a five-year-old son, a caring and loving mother by all accounts, who finds herself in a custodial environment, an environment which is alien to her.

“The defendant never believed that her addiction to cocaine and consumption of alcohol and her destructive and toxic relationship with Paul Gallagher would lead to the confines of a prison cell.

“This defendant was the victim of acute and severe domestic violence at the hands of Paul Gallagher.”

She said the fire was a ”cry for help” by Williamson, who had been due to attend a residential detox program but was taken into custody first.

Paul Gallagher refused to interact with the investigation at all but the owner of the flat said that the carpet had suffered severe damage and there was smoke damage to the walls.

Judge Denis Watson, QC, said: “It seems you involved yourself in a relationship with Paul Gallagher which suited neither of you. It has been described as toxic. I have been told there was significant domestic violence within that relationship.

“The long and the short of it is that whatever your choice of partner at the time the reason you are here is because of your cocaine and alcohol addiction.

“The combination of this has resulted in you committing one of the most serious and dangerous offences this court deals with.”

He jailed Williamson for 16 months but suspended the sentence for two years, told her to attend supervision and drug rehabilitation for nine months and a women’s turnaround project.