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A Reservoir Dogs obsessive has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years after he was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, who died from her injuries more than 20 years after he set her alight to re-enact a scene from the film.
Steven Craig was jailed for life today at Bristol Crown Court for life for murdering Jacqueline Kirk by dousing her with petrol and setting her on fire in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
Craig, 58, is believed to have got the idea to set Kirk, a mother-of-two known as Jackie, alight from a scene in the famous Quentin Tarantino movie where a policeman is tortured in a chair.
He inflicted horrendous injuries to her in a car park in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in April 1998.
Craig was convicted in 2000 of causing grievous bodily harm with intent after pouring petrol over Jacqueline and setting her on fire at Dolphin Square in Weston-super-Mare,
She did not make a complaint against Craig until a year later, when she found out he had attacked and raped another woman.
Craig, of Brailsford Crescent in York, was found guilty of her murder last month on October 28. He admitted the petrol attack but denied murder.
Ms Kirk was in hospital for nine months following the attack – including three in intensive care – and suffered burns to 35 per cent of her body, requiring a tracheotomy and operations including skin grafts.
She underwent 14 operations but survived for 21 years to see her family grow up, get married and have their own children.
Jacqueline Kirk pictured in 2003 after the injuries Craig subjected her to in Weston in 1998
Her son and daughter were by her bedside when she died in August 2019, having been taken to the Royal United Hospital in Bath seriously unwell.
In 2000, Craig was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent following a trial at Bristol Crown Court and served more than 15 years in prison for that attack and two offences against a different woman.
But when Ms Kirk died from a ruptured diaphragm at the age of 61 in August 2019, Craig was arrested on suspicion of murder in July 2021.
The judge detailed how Ms Kirk suffered intestinal swelling for an unknown reason and scarring to her chest and abdomen meant their ability to expand was reduced.
This caused a ruptured diaphragm, with doctors unable to operate given her frailty.
Mrs Justice Stacey said Craig watched the Reservoir Dogs film with a ‘permanent grin’ as he viewed the torture of the policeman and ‘liked acting like a character in the film’.
Body worn video of Steven Craig’s arrest over the murder of Jacqueline Kirk after she died
She said of the murder: ‘You caused her death by setting fire to her. You had no intention to kill Jackie but the risk was so obvious.’
The judge said father-of-two Craig – 33 years old at the time – said he was going to torture Jackie and acted out of ‘revenge over jealousy and perceived slights’.
‘Your conduct was sadistic. Your attack was planned and premeditated.’
She said electrician Craig’s ‘cowardly behaviour’ deliberately caused really serious injury by fire and left the victim permanently disfigured and in agony.
The judge said the ‘level of sadism and extreme nature of the attack’ was ‘so callous and so brutal’.
She told Craig: ‘Your murder of Jackie justifies the total minimum term of imprisonment of 34 years but because you have already served nearly 19 years for causing the grievous bodily harm she so bravely ensured, the term I impose is 15 years and five days, that would bring the balance to 34 years.’
A jury at Bristol Crown Court unanimously convicted him of her murder following a three-week trial.
The Reservoir Dogs scene when Michael Madsen (Mr Blonde) is torturing a police officer
Richard Smith KC, prosecuting, told the court Craig had been handed a discretionary life sentence for his attack on Ms Kirk during previous proceedings.
He served more than 15 years in prison before being released but was recalled on two separate occasions.
Smith said her injuries had contributed to her death and were ‘more than minimal’.
Craig, of York, admitted the petrol attack on Jacqueline but denied murder.
Yesterday Mr Smith KC said Craig and Jackie had been in a relationship with him for around three to four years but he was ‘exploitative, controlling and coercive’.
He said Craig, who used drugs and alcohol, was a ‘volatile character’ who had been violent towards her in the past suffering facial fractures.
‘Jackie was frightened of the defendant with good cause. He was controlling of her.’
A court sketch by artist Elizabeth Cook of Steven Craig appearing in the dock at Bristol Crown Court
Ms Kirk was in hospital for nine months following the attack – including three in intensive care (undated handout)
He said on one occasion Craig went into her bedroom with a can of petrol and poured it over her and her bed and threatened to set it alight.
He said Craig had repeatedly seen the Reservoir Dogs film where a man was tortured in a chair and was set alight with petrol.
‘Jackie recalled the grin on his face as he watched that film. He had a fixation about fires,’ said Mr Smith.
He said Craig repeatedly threatened to burn down her flat and locked her in a railway station toilet for hours after being violent towards her.
Days later he said he had arranged to have her killed and said she would have to leave town for a few days – but they ended up in Weston-super-Mare after he filled a Coke bottle with petrol.
Jackie said she had been an ‘outgoing person’ before the attack but it left her ‘shocked and traumatised’
She underwent 14 operations but survived for 21 years to see her family grow up, get married and have their own children
He said Jackie, then 40, was scared by the death threat but did not believe it despite his capacity for violence.
Then around midnight in the car park he became hostile again about some of Jackie’s ex boyfriends and said he was ‘going to torture Jackie’.
She felt petrol being poured over her head and chest as he forced her head down in the passenger seat. They got out of the car and he offered her a cigarette saying it ‘may be her last’.
He had a lighter in his hand and a flame went across her face as she was ignited as she screamed for help in agony. He did not try and help her but just told her to roll over in a bid to put the flames.
Jackie’s wounds were ‘life changeingly awful’ and pictures of them were too graphic to show to the jury.
At the petrol attack trial Jackie said she had been an ‘outgoing person’ who was looking forward to travelling but was left ‘shocked and traumatised by the extent of my injuries’.
She said she wanted to ‘give up and hide away’ because of the many sleepless nights, pain and discomfort and reliving the experience.
She said: ‘I never deserved to sustain these injuries I have.’
Jackie said became ‘a very timid, shy, embarrassed person’ who wanted to stay indoors and would go hungry rather than go out to the shops for provisions as ‘people looked at me shocked at my scars and burns causing me great distress’.
She said people stared at her and she asked ‘why me?’ as she questioned what had she done to deserve this life sentence adding: ‘I was not meant to live and should have died’.
Christopher Tehrani, KC, defending, said: ‘In the 90s and late 80s he was a thoroughly unpleasant person, that is clear.’
After the verdict Jacqueline’s daughter Sonna praised medical staff, saying: ‘If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have had the extra 21 years and we’re very, very grateful for all the hard work they did.
‘Most people would describe her as stubborn and that’s mostly seen as a negative thing but for her it was a very positive thing, it kept her going and it got her stronger and it got her to be Jackie.’
In an emotional statement to the court Sonna said when she first went to see her mother in hospital after the petrol attack: ‘She looked like an alien. She had no lips but a slit for a mouth.
‘She had no voice, a tube in her mouth to breathe.’
The court heard that Ms Kirk was so disfigured when Sonna first arrived in hospital that she only recognised her feet.
She paid tribute to her ‘strong-willed, strong-minded’ mother, who was opinionated, ‘funny and witty’.
‘She was determined to be herself again,’ Sonna said.
‘It was a hard road. My brother spent a long time with her, supporting her. She rekindled old friendships.
‘That made a big, big difference because they helped her be the Jackie she was, and not a victim.
‘We didn’t want her to be this person who suffered all these horrible things. We wanted her to build her life and be herself again.’
Detective chief inspector Mark Almond, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: ‘Jacqueline Kirk sustained unimaginable physical and mental injuries at the hands of Steven Craig.
‘What he did to her was horrendous and had a profound effect on her and her family. Yet she surpassed doctors’ expectations and lived for a further 21 years, during which time she saw her children get married and several grandchildren born.
‘While she managed to see many significant milestones, her life was still cut short by the injuries caused by Craig and it was only right that he was held fully accountable.’
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