Nikisha Isard: Woman jailed for setting fire to rental house while taking drugs, causing $500,000 damage

A woman who caused almost $500,000 worth of damage to a rental house while trying to take drugs - setting the property, herself and a friend alight - has been sent to jail and handed a huge bill to pay when she gets out. Nikisha Jayde Isard was homeless and staying at the Bassendean property without the owner’s knowledge last year when she tried to make a home-made “candle” in the early hours of May 6. She’d been told it involved inserting a rope into a tin container, filling it with methylated spirits, then lighting the rope. But it burst into flames, which licked her face, prompting her to drop the tin. “You didn’t realise at the time that part of your hair was on fire but you saw your friend’s clothes were on fire,” WA District Court Judge Charlotte Wallace told the 30-year-old on Thursday. “He ran to the bathroom and immediately got under the shower. “You followed after him and he told you to leave. “You say you then ran to the front of the house in an attempt to put the fire out, but it had spread rapidly and you were unable to do so.” Isard called out to the other occupants of the property - who were asleep - to get out and called for help. She only realised she had suffered burns when police arrived. The friend who was set alight suffered severe injuries, requiring hospitalisation for about a month. Judge Wallace said she had seen photographs of his burns and described them as “pretty distressing”. The judge said she accepted Isard didn’t foresee the mayhem she unleashed, noting she’d had a tough life, suffering abuse, battling addiction and separated from her young child. “I could see the distress on your face when we talked about the repercussions of the offending on the victim,” Judge Wallace said. “I could tell that you are genuinely distressed and you had no intention of that kind of consequence being inflicted on anybody.” She sentenced Isard to 20 months’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility after serving half, and made an order she pay $435,000 in compensation to the landlord. “The victim has lost a significant amount of money or property, and that’s estimated to be just under half a million dollars,” Judge Wallace said. “That’s caused her considerable distress. “I’m not sure if you’re ever going to be able to pay anything. “But I think if you can pay something, that you should.”