He first poured gas on him and burned him. Then, during the judicial process, it emerged that Corbie Jean Walpole had developed a post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the same episode for which he was convicted.
The story comes from Australia and sees Corbie Jean Walpole and his friend Jake Loader.
In January 2024, in Howlong, New South Wales, what was a friendship relationship for years turned into an episode of extreme violence.
After a night marked by heavy alcohol consumption and cocaine use, and after misogyn comments made by Loader, Walpole took a gas tank, poured fuel on his friend and set him on fire.
The consequences were very serious: Loader reported third-degree burns on about 55% of the body, remained eight days in a pharmacological coma, spent 74 days in a specialized department for large burners and had to deal with ten operations.
Walpole pleaded guilty and in May 2025 was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.
But the judiciary took a special turn when the defense imputed the sentence.
The lawyers claimed that Walpole's psychological conditions were not adequately considered: both the depressive disorder suffered at the time of aggression and the post-traumatic stress disorder that would later develop as a consequence of the episode.
An argument that may appear paradoxical, especially considering the physical consequences of Loader.
On the judicial level, however, the existence of psychological trauma and responsibility for a crime are different issues: the presence of psychological consequences for those who committed a violent act does not automatically erase the severity of the conduct or the damage caused to the victim.
In June 2026, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal rejected the appeal. The seven and a half years' worth remained unchanged.
The Court held that the depressive disorder did not significantly reduce Walpole's moral responsibility and defined its completely disproportionate reaction to Loader's comments.
On the one hand there is therefore a man who had to face very serious burns, a pharmacological coma, months of treatment and permanent consequences.
On the other hand there is the person convicted of causing him those wounds, whose defense asked justice to consider his psychological conditions.
The Court examined those arguments and decided not to reduce the penalty.
One thing remains in the center of history: Jake Loader survived an assault that could have cost him his life.