A FORMER nun who torched her flat and set fire to part of a North-East hospital ward was jailed for six years yesterday.

Philippa Carruth, 44, struggled to cope with life in the outside world after she left the Carmelite Convent, in Darlington, in acrimonious circumstances in 2001.

Teesside Crown Court heard her failure to adjust to living outside the closed order, where she spent 16 years, led to her carrying out two arson attacks in the town.

The first fire happened on January 31, last year, at Carruth's ground-floor council flat in Gouldsmith Gardens, after she tried to contact her doctor and emergency services.

After getting no response, she tried to catch the attention of a passer-by by setting waste paper alight.

But the blaze got out of control, putting the lives of her neighbours, including an 80-year-old woman and a seven-year-old child, in danger.

The blaze caused £15,000 worth of damage to her flat, while others were badly affected. A family of four had to spend 28 days in temporary accommodation as a result.

Carruth was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital, where alarms were activated on March 7 after she started a fire in her room.

Dan Cordey, in mitigation, said she took full responsibility for what she had done and realised the consequences could have been tragic.

He said she had led an unhappy life, having been abused as a child and suffering problems at the convent she joined in 1985.

He said: "She had a number of physical fights with a fellow nun towards the end of 2000. That resulted in her leaving the convent after 16 years, and she was simply unable to cope with independent-living."

Carruth admitted charges of arson reckless as to whether life was endangered, for which she received six years' imprisonment, and arson, for which she was handed a four-year sentence, to run concurrently.

An order was also made so that if she committed an offence within five years of leaving prison, she could be sent back to jail.

Judge Tony Briggs told Carruth: "You have a long and complicated history, and there is much about your life that would cause people to have sympathy for you.

"Having said that, there is in your make-up a very distinct manipulative factor."

In July 1990, in an unprecedented move, the convent, in Nunnery Lane, allowed The Northern Echo to witness her taking her final vows in front of family and friends.