An evil stepmother from the Black Country who poured petrol over her husband in a brutal arson murder has died while serving her sentence behind bars, BirminghamLive can reveal.
Georgina Vilella ignited the fatal blaze as husband Carlos, 45, was in bed on the first floor of their Walsall family home. The fire consumed the house and left four of his six daughters trapped inside the terraced property on Pleck Road.
Dad-of-six Carlos was tragically killed, while his daughter Josefina, then aged 14 years, suffered horrific 60 percent burns. She later had both legs amputated and lost part of her left arm following the devastating arson attack in March 2011.
Vilella, originally from Guinea, was convicted of murder and arson with intent to endanger life. She was sentenced to a minimum term of 23 years in prison in August 2012.
Now the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has launched an investigation after she died on the eve of her 61st Birthday. The 60-year-old passed away at HMP Send, a closed women's prison in Ripley, Surrey, on Sunday, May 10. It has not emerged how she died with a probe ongoing.
A Prison Service spokeswoman told BirminghamLive: "As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is investigating. We will respond to its findings in due course."
During the trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court in 2012, HIV-positive Georgina Vilella was branded a wife with a terrible "temper". She suffered from depression and felt "like an incomplete woman" due to not being able to bear children for her husband. The jury was told there was evidence of Vilella, then aged 46 years, buying petrol from a garage days before the murder.
Having started the blaze she fled. Then she watched neighbours and firefighters desperately trying to rescue Mr Vilella and his children, who were then aged 13, 14, 17 and 21 years. One stepdaughter suffered a broken pelvis after jumping from a first floor window to escape the flames, another girl had smoke inhalation and a third was rescued when she climbed onto a porch roof.
However, it was Josefina who tragically suffered life-changing injuries. She was in hospital for 18 months and learned to walk again using two prosthetic legs. Josefina spoke on the day she was reunited with five firemen, based at Walsall Fire Station, who saved her from the burning building, telling how she had forgiven her stepmother. "She has claimed the life of a man who was dearest to me but I forgive her," Josefina told BirminghamLive. "I feel sorry for her. She has lost everything including her freedom and her family but I have the love of my sisters and that is all that matters."
Speaking at the time of the tragedy, Detective Sergeant Rob Bastin, from West Midlands Police said: "This was a horrific case, in which Vilella acted in a cold and calculating way. We have evidence of her buying petrol from a garage a couple of days before the murder. This was a premeditated act, which left six daughters without a father and at least one of those girls with life changing injuries."
