An Angus woman set fire to her partner’s home after he admitted cheating on her, a court heard.
First offender Lynda Kirkwood Stewart intentionally set a fire after a morning argument with her partner resulted in her being left “upset” on September 30 last year.
Kirkwood appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court and admitted a charge of culpably and recklessly setting fire to the front room curtains in the couple’s Kirriemuir home.
The 61-year-old originally appeared on petition but the charge was reduced to a summary complaint.
She was told her actions could have burned the Morrison Street house to the ground.
Depute fiscal Jill Drummond said: “The locus is a terraced house with a large number of residential properties nearby. Witness Ramsay and the accused reside there together and have been in a relationship for 18 years.
“The house belongs to witness Ramsay. Around 11.30am, witness Ramsay and the accused were at the locus.
“The witness had admitted he’d had an affair with another woman a year previously.”
Stewart told the man to leave the house and he went to work, and then went to stay at his brother’s house that night.
He received several phone calls from an “upset” Stewart.
During a call at 9.10pm, he heard her say: “Oh my God the house is on fire!”
Ms Drummond said an independent witness who was out walking observed the smoke, found Stewart in the back garden, and helped her to the front of the property.
Fire crews attended at 9.15pm and managed to restrict the fire to the front wall, which was mainly smoke damage.
Stewart appeared “irate” to police who attended and was under the influence of alcohol.
Ms Drummond said: “She stated she started the fire herself because she was upset over the affair.”
The court heard she told them: “It was just one of those stupid things. He’s been having an affair and I’d had too much to drink.”
Deferring sentence to September 3 for the preparation of criminal justice social work reports, Sheriff Gregor Murray said: “You’re extremely fortunate the damage was restricted to smoke. The whole house could have gone up in 10 seconds.”