A WOMAN who doused a bed in petrol and set it on fire while her lesbian former lover lay naked with a new girlfriend at a North Yorkshire farm has been warned she faces a "substantial" jail term.

Jealous Sarah Metcalfe, 46, no fixed address, discovered her ex-girlfriend, Katie Wrigglesworth, in bed with Emma Shakesheff in a caravan she owned at Goldsborough Mill Farm, near Knaresborough.

Leeds Crown Court heard that Metcalfe set fire to the bedroom in a desperate bid to stop them having sex on July 20, last year.

The pair were initially trapped in the blaze, but escaped through a window.

Ms Wrigglesworth, 26, suffered 40 per cent partial thickness burns to her arms, legs and body and had to spend ten weeks in hospital.

Ms Shakesheff, 32, sustained extensive second-degree burns to 44 per cent of her body and spent six weeks at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, the court heard.

Metcalfe had pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm earlier in the trial, but insisted it was an accident.

Mr Justice Royce yesterday discharged the jury when they failed to reach a verdict on two counts of GBH with intent after more than five hours of deliberations.

Metcalfe, whose son was watching in the public gallery, then pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of arson reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

Sentencing was adjourned for reports, but Mr Justice Royce warned Metcalfe that she faced a "substantial term of imprisonment".

Updated: 10:28 Saturday, January 22, 2005