THE trial of a man accused of trying to murder his partner by dousing her in petrol and setting her alight took a dramatic twist today.

Edward McArthur admitted an alternative charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and one of arson with intent to endanger life and was jailed for 15-and-a-half years

The unexpected move halted the Teesside Crown Court trial of the Darlington 40-year-old, which had been scheduled to last more than a week.

McArthur's girlfriend Rebecca Major suffered 40 per cent burns after the drama at a first-floor flat in Geneva Road, Darlington, last August.

She also suffered a fractured skull and a broken sternum after leaping from an upstairs window in flames to escape the blazing property.

When the trial began yesterday, the jury was told by prosecutor Christine Egerton that McArthur trie to kill his partner after a row.

The jury was shown two video interviews Miss Major did with police from her bed in the burns unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle.

In the first, heavily bandaged and with an oxygen mask, she said: "It was either jump from the window or burn alive. I don't know why he did it."

In another, recorded a month after the incident, she said she thought McArthur was just trying to scare her by covering her in petrol.

McArthur had pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life, claiming the fire was an accident.

He admitted pouring petrol over Miss Major, but claimed to have tried to clean it of, then lit a cigarette which must have ignited vapours.

After the two recordings were played to the jury, there was a halt in proceedings, and his lawyers offered a guilty plea to the GBH charge.

Following lengthy legal discussions which took up most of yesterday afternoon, Judge Bourne-Arton adjourned the hearing until this morning.

When the case returned to court, the jury of six men and six women was told that McArthur would admit deliberately injuring his girlfriend.

Miss Major was in court with her mother and police officers when McArthur entered his pleas.

She sat in the public gallery, just feet away from her former boyfriend, who appeared in the dock wearing a patterned grey jumper over a lilac polo shirt.