KEY POINTS:
A Christchurch woman says she grabbed her two-year-old son from the arms of her partner when he set himself on fire during a domestic row.
The Crown says Jonathon Francis Pearson used lighter fluid to set alight the T-shirt he was wearing, while holding the baby on his hip and with his partner an arm's length away.
Pearson's counsel David Bunce told Christchurch District Court that the defence would say the flames were the result of an accident when Pearson was trying to relight a cigarette, the Court News website reports.
He said there was no injury to the baby nor the partner, and only some singeing to Pearson's hair and beard. There was little visible damage to the T-shirt that caught fire.
Pearson, 31, is on trial before Judge Colin Doherty and a jury. He denies doing a dangerous act with reckless disregard for the safety of the child Brooklyn and his partner Chantell Leigh Cook.
Miss Cook said the couple argued at their home in the suburb of Hornby on the night of July 20, 2007, and next morning she said she was taking the children and going to her mother's. Pearson would not let her go, nor take the car.
She followed him into the bedroom trying to take the child from him.
"He set himself alight. He put the Zippo lighter against his T-shirt," she told the court. Pearson didn't say anything as orange flames spread across his chest.
She grabbed the crying child off Pearson so forcefully that she left marks on his legs, and ran outside to put him in the car, where her daughter already was.
She called the police and while she was at the car, Pearson walked past wearing a jacket.
When she went back into the house, she could not find their three-month-old child and believed Pearson had taken him.
Cross-examined, she said she had not noticed Pearson trying to light a cigarette but it could be possible. She also accepted that Pearson may have held the baby out to her when the fire started.
Police witnesses gave evidence of stopping Pearson nearby and demanding that he hand over the baby who he had under his jacket.
"I believed there were fumes on his clothing which could harm the baby," said Constable Richard Roy Barker.
Pearson denied to the police that he had been holding Brooklyn when he was on fire. Asked why he had taken the three-month-old out, he replied: "Because he's mine."
A forensic scientist, Gary Richard Gillespie, told of examining the T-shirt for signs of fire or heat damage.
There was discoloration consistent with a burn from lighter fluid around the stomach area, and lighter singeing on the chest. This was quite subtle but was more evident under high-powered light.
He also checked the bottle of Zippo lighter fluid the police took from Pearson, and found it was working normally.
The trial is due to finish tomorrow.
- NZPA
