Man convicted of burning partner alive loses appeal

A man who murdered his partner by pouring petrol over her and setting her on fire while she was asleep has lost his appeal against his conviction.

Gary Mills is serving life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years after being found guilty in the High Court at Rotorua last January of murder and arson.

The trial was told that after a day of drinking on May 1 2008, Mills poured petrol over Lyn Delzoppo's legs as she lay in her bed.

Having poured petrol around the house to block her exit, Mills then set his partner of eight years alight and ran up the road to get help.

After escaping the house, Ms Delzoppo said to a neighbour, "I'm burnt, I'm burnt, I'm hurt" and said that Mills was the one who poured petrol over her.

At a Court of Appeal hearing in Wellington last month, lawyers for Mills argued that the statement made to the neighbour should not have been allowed at trial as there was no reasonable assurance of reliability.

Defence lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith said Ms Delzoppo had a history of self-harm and blame, and suggested she might have accidentally set herself alight or did it on purpose and it got out of hand.

However, in a decision released today, the court dismissed the appeal.

The decision said the only "evidence" that cast doubt on Ms Delzoppo's statement to the neighbour was Mills' claim she had once stabbed herself and blamed him for it.

"In the present context, this unsupported and unsworn claim simply does not cut the mustard," the decision read.

"Accordingly we conclude that the considerations relied upon by Mr Wilkinson-Smith do not detract from the reality that the circumstances relating to the statement give reasonable assurance of reliability."

- NZPA