A JEALOUS woman who poured petrol through the letterbox of her ex-boyfriend's home before setting it alight was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Mother Lynne Gulliford set fire to ex-lover Carl Higgs' Cwmbran home because their relationship was over and she believed he was with another woman, a court heard.

It was only the intervention of neighbours which prevented the fire from spreading.

Before torching his unoccupied end-of-link home in Thornhill's Dorleigh Court in January, Gulliford sent Mr Higgs threatening text messages, prosecutor Harry Baker said.

One ominous message warned Mr Higgs that "he wouldn't have a home to live in".

Gulliford, 33, of The Rise, Pontnewydd, Cwmbran, was sentenced at Newport crown court after admitting arson being reckless as whether the lives of others were endangered.

The court was told she had been drinking before she set the fire in the early hours of Saturday, January 14.

Gulliford arrived in a taxi to torch Mr Higgs' home armed with a can of petrol and a box of matches.

She told the taxi driver she needed the petrol because her car had broken down.

Mr Baker said it was "fortunate" that as the petrol was ignited, neighbour Dawn Pitt "heard the sounds of what was going on and smelled the fumes".

She alerted her husband and they prevented the fire from spreading so that "not a great deal of damage" was done. But, Mr Baker said, the tiled area around the door was described as being "awash with petrol". Before setting the fire, he said, Gulliford had contacted her cousin Danielle Jones to ask if she knew the "slut" Mr Higgs was allegedly seeing.

She also asked if there was anyone she knew who could "give them a beating", Mr Baker said.

Richard Ace, mitigating, said his client had been in problematic relationships with a number of men. He said she had suffered from a drink problem and a depressive illness.