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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.Â
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.Â
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,
Jacqueline Kirk pictured in 2003 after the injuries Craig subjected her to in Weston in 1998
She did not make a complaint against Craig until a year later, when she found out he had attacked and raped another woman.Â
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.Â
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.Â
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.Â
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’.
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.’Â
A jury at Bristol Crown Court unanimously convicted him of her murder following a three-week trial.
Body worn video of Steven Craig’s arrest over the murder of Jacqueline Kirk after she died
The Reservoir Dogs scene when Michael Madsen (Mr Blonde) is torturing a police officer
During today’s hearing, Richard Smith KC, prosecuting, also quoted from a statement Jacqueline Kirk made ahead of the trial in 2000.
Jaqueline wrote: ‘There have been times when I wonder if I have a life to live at all, however the thought of my children and the fact that I do not want Steve to have an influence on my giving up on life keeps me going at the moment but I have to admit it is a struggle.
‘One of the things I cannot come to terms with is simply ‘why?’, ‘why me?’ what have I ever done to serve this sentence on my life.’
She also wrote: ‘I don’t know what the future holds for me but I can say I just try to take each day as it comes and I have good days and bad days.
‘One thing is for sure that every time I look at myself in the mirror I am reminded of what happened and I realise that I am going to have to treat my burns for the rest of my life.
‘I do sometimes think that my scars are just dirty marks on my face and that my face I knew is underneath.
‘I do at times sit there and think I was not meant to live and I was and should have died.’Â
Smith 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.
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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’.
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.Â
‘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. Â
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:Â ‘It is extremely difficult to put into words the impact Steven Craig’s actions had on both Jacqueline herself and her family.
‘While I never met Jackie, from what her children tell me, she was a truly remarkable woman.
‘She overcame numerous challenges with an incredible determination and fought with great dignity to rediscover the life she had before she was attacked.
‘Her resilience was one of the reasons why she surprised doctors and survived for a further 21 years, during which time she saw her children grow up, get married and have children of their own.
‘Steven Craig was undoubtedly responsible for Jackie’s death and like all murderers, deserves to be severely punished.
‘I’d once again like to thank Jackie’s family for their support and praise them for the courage they’ve shown not just during the course of this investigation and court case, but for the past 24 years.
‘I hope they can move on to the next chapter of their lives knowing justice has been done.’
