A father in Australia has been jailed for at least 17 years after admitting he intended to murder his three-year-old daughter after he set her alight.
Edward John Herbert, 45, was on a drug and alcohol binge lasting weeks when he set his daughter alight and also doused her seven-year-old autistic sister with petrol at their Perth home in 2015.
In court, Herbert pled not guilty on all five charges he faced and claimed insanity. But the stand-alone Judge in his case rejected that claim, according to reports.
The three-year-old girl suffered burns to 13 percent of her body and has been left permanently scarred.
On the night of the attack, Herbert reportedly ran around the family home naked and with a knife after yelling that "the werewolf is coming" prompting his partner to try and flee the house for safety.
An off-duty police officer told the court of the moment she went into the house after hearing a commotion, she found the three-year-old standing up in her cot with "her whole head on fire" before using a blanket to put the flames out, the Daily Mail reports.
Witnesses report Herbert was inside drinking a beer while neighbours ran in to help.
One neighbour told the court Herbert told him he set his daughter on fire because she was "too beautiful."
He then attempted to attack the neighbour with a knife but was hit on the head by a fire extinguisher.
Newshub.
