Real Life

Updated: Nicole Evans’ family say she’s moving her limbs after horrific fire attack

The young Hobart woman's fiancé has been charged with dousing her in petrol and setting her alight.
Hobart woman fighting for her life after being ‘doused in petrol and set alight by her fiancé’

Update: 1/5/2017

Last week, news of a horrific alleged attack that left a young Hobart women with 50% burns to her body rocked the nation.

Nicole Evans was rushed to hospital with extensive injuries after she was reportedly doused in petrol and set on fire by her fiancé Matthew John Davey, 34.

Nicole, 20, was flown to Melbourne in a critical condition and doctors warned if she pulled though, she faced “many months” of gruelling treatment for her injuries.

Her family have confirmed that she’s still in an induced coma but her condition is improving.

“I am pleased to be able to report – having just been speaking with Nicole’s mother – that she is responding to sound and moving her limbs,” Nicole’s friend Leslie Chambers said on a Go Fund Me.

“Her eyes are also moving under her eyelids. Her immediate family are relieved to witness this progress.”

It’s alleged her partner set her alight in a backyard shed.

He’s in custody charged with causing grievous bodily harm and will appear in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on June 13. More as we get it.

Original story

A young woman is fighting for her life after allegedly being doused in petrol and set on fire by her fiancé.

Nicole Evans, 20, who’s an aged care worker from Hobart, is in a critical condition, Police prosecutor Oliver Hinss told Hobart Magistrates Court on Tuesday that doctors “have grave concerns as to whether she will in fact survive”.

She was reportedly set alight on Monday evening and subsequently has burns to over 50% of her body. Nicole is now in an induced coma at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne after being flown over from Tasmania.

A Go Fund Me page has been set up for Nicole by her friends to help support her through “endless surgery, treatments, physical and mental help if she pulls through this horrible and heartbreaking tragedy”.

The page calls the young woman “a precious daughter, a sister, an aunt and a beautiful soul of a friend”.

Police confirmed an accelerant of some type had been used in the alleged attack.

Her fiancé Matthew Davey, 34, has pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and remains in police custody. He did not apply for bail.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.

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