A warm way to usher in the new year

The following was reported by the BBC today:

Rajini Narayan, 44, is alleged to have doused her husband, Satish, with a flammable liquid while he was sleeping.

When she set him alight, Mr Narayan jumped out of bed and knocked over the substance, causing the fire to spread.

Mrs Narayan told the court she had not intended to kill her husband but to punish him for his alleged infidelity.

Prosecutor Lucy Boord said Mrs Narayan had confessed to her neighbours, telling them she was a "jealous wife" and believed her husband was having an affair.

"I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else, I didn't mean this to happen," Ms Boord quoted Mrs Narayan as saying.

The fire, on 8 December 2008, caused damage to the couple's house estimated at 1m Australian dollars ($715,000, £490,000).

Mrs Narayan was initially charged with arson and endangering life - including the lives of her three children who were in the house at the time.

The charge was upgraded to murder after Mr Narayan died from his injuries last week.

She has been held in police custody pending the results of a psychological assessment.



Stories like these make me feel better about being single. Stories like these also make me hope that should I eventually marry that significant other, she won't be crazy enough to do something like this. This isn't exactly an isolated incident by any means. Just last year the following article was reported in Reuters:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict."

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.

"It was monstrously painful," the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this."

Moral of the story: don't cheat, don't associate with crazy women, don't piss off your girlfriend/wife (no pun intended), and, for heavens sake, have some regard for human life.