A CRAZED arsonist who set her home on fire said she "didn't give a f**k" about a couple and their baby she could have killed living upstairs.

Reckless Claire Paton set fire to her Blyth home without caring if she killed a neighbour in the process.

When told the family above her flat could have died, a Newcastle Crown Court heard her reply: "Good".

The twisted arsonist also started laughing when she was shown pictures of the thousands of pounds of damage she had caused.

The 48-year-old, who admitted to charges of arson, has been jailed to two years and eight months.

The court heard how Paton was living on the ground floor of her housing association flat at Brockwell Court in Blyth with occupied flats all around her and a family upstairs when she set her home alight.

In the weeks leading up to the twisted arson attack, Paton has been behaving strangely and began randomly shouting, banging and laughing.

Around 1am on November 14, the family upstairs heard the woman's smoke alarm ringing and when they looked outside they saw "plumes of smoke" and so decided to flee.

When a man ran down to see if Paton was alright, she made up a story about the fire being caused by "a cigarette or something" but he was able to spot a heap of clothes deliberately set alight in her bedroom.

Prosecutor Jo Kidd said: "He said they had a nine-month-old baby and she could have killed them all. The defendant said 'Good'.

"She then told his partner to 'f*** off' and said 'I don't care'."

Paton then called emergency services and began hurling abuse at them after admitting she had set her home on fire.

An investigation found the 48-year-old had lit combustible material on the bed, causing some £7,000 worth of damages.

When she was finally arrested, she blasted cops for not helping her over an allegation someone had stolen money from her bank account.

Kidd said: "She repeated to the officers that so far as the family upstairs were concerned she 'couldn't give a f***' and began laughing when shown pictures of the damage to the flat."

Judge Julie Clemitson told her: "You had a self-destructive purpose, perhaps, and lost sight of the impact it had on anyone else around you.

"People were put at high risk because of the time of the incident, when they were likely to be asleep in bed."

Paton has previous convictions for offences including child neglect, theft, drugs, fraud and being concerned in the supply of drugs.

Her lawyer, Stuart Graham, said she was suffering mental health issues at the time.

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He told the court: "It's actually quite sad. She said nobody loved her at all and she wanted to die.

"It's a very sad state of affairs."

He said his client was "stressed and distressed" at the time about her missing money but is said to be in a better state now.

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