Peter John Moiler: Mum describes moment her estranged husband allegedly set her on fire at Mount Helena

WARNING: CONFRONTING CONTENT A mother of three has described in court how she watched as blue flames rolled up her chest towards her face after her husband allegedly set her on fire. Kirsten Moiler told a District Court of WA trial that she had just arrived at her estranged husband’s home when he leaned through her open car window twice and squirted liquid from a bottle onto her chest. “The next movement was I heard a flick and then all I seen was blue flames rolling up my chest towards my face,” Ms Moiler said. “It felt like my skin was being ripped off my body. It was burning, singeing, I couldn’t stop it.” Peter John Moiler is fighting a single charge of acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm after allegedly setting her on fire outside his Mt Helena home on June 2, 2023. Hours before the alleged attack, Ms Moiler had applied for a violence restraining order but was told the court could not deal with it until after a long, public holiday weekend. Ms Moiler testified about their long, tempestuous relationship, saying it was marred by violence, jealousy and selling and using drugs. She alleged previous attacks when he had beat her with a gun, jumped on her leg that had been broken in a car crash and pushed her down a flight of stairs. Ms Moiler admitted striking out with a broom during the latter incident. “I like to keep things peaceful and quiet. I don’t like tension and hostility in the family home,” she said. “But I will react and defend myself if need be.” She also recalled one time hurting herself by striking the back of her head with a perfume bottle - splitting her skin - during an argument. “The only way I could stop this verbal, physical abuse is to hurt myself and snap him out of it,” she said. Later, she said of that incident: “Everybody behaves irrationally on gear”. She was regularly using methamphetamine at the time. In her violence restraining order application, among the list of allegations was that he had threatened to “take me out bush and kill me in front of our four-year-old”. She had recently moved out of the family home and said she had become “frightened” of his behaviour when he visited her and their children. She had been reluctant to take her father’s advice to go to police and apply for the restraining order because she believed it “was not the right thing to do”. “I was brought up like that as well, it was very cemented in Peter’s and my mind that you never call police, ever. We are selling drugs, we are not doing the right thing. You would never dob in your family,” she said. When told her application would take days, Ms Moiler said she felt “let down by the courts and by police” and “had to take matters into my own hands”. So she texted Mr Moiler inviting him to go to a nearby gravel pit to do burnouts. “I felt like it was a really dangerous time leaving Peter and his erratic behaviour. I needed him to know we were still going to be able to co-parent and be friends essentially,” she said. When she arrived at his home, she said he appeared at her open car window and said “Are you good? Are you strapped in?” before setting her on fire. “When I saw the flames roll up my chest I put my head down, I said, ‘what the f..k Pete?’” Ms Moiler said she got out of the car, stripped off her clothes to her underwear and ran to a nearby creek, submerging herself in the water. She was then assisted by neighbours who continued to douse her with a garden hose until paramedics arrived. She told the court she was in a coma for three weeks and suffered severe burns to her arms, hands, fingers, ears, lips, nose, chest, back and thighs. Mr Moiler’s defence barrister Roisin Keating put to the witness that her client “was never violent to you to the extent that you said in your evidence”. “There was pushing and shoving,” Ms Keating said. “He never punched you, he never kicked you. “And that’s why the restraining order only said verbal abuse.” Ms Moiler said that was incorrect and she didn’t tell police about earlier violence because: “That’s how we were conditioned - don’t dob in your partner”. Ms Keating suggested to the jury that her client did not start the fire. The trial continues. If you or someone you know needs help, contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), or Sexual Assault Counselling Australia on 1800 211 028, the WA Sexual Assault Resource Centre on 6458 1828 or 1800 199 888 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.