A woman charged with the attempted murder of her boyfriend said she wanted the two to burn together, a doctor testified yesterday.

Dr. Peter Smith, who examined Graham Robert Stancliffe when he was rushed to hospital with burns on October 13, 1993, said Veronica Leslene Dill admitted she poured gasoline on Stancliffe.

"I wanted us to burn together,'' Dr. Smith said Dill told him.

On top of attempted murder, Dill has pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to burn, and arson.

As her trial continued in Supreme Court, Dill denied ever having asked Stancliffe to hit or punch her, as he claimed during his testimony.

Doctors told of evidence of possible abuse to Dill, and firemen and friends described Dill's dishevelled state before and after the incident.

Stancliffe suffered severe burns to his legs when Dill set fire to his bed.

Senior Fire Prevention Officer Malcolm Michael Eugene Outerbridge said he arrived at the blaze and found a jar containing a gasoline-like liquid.

"There was no evidence to suggest it was accidental,'' he told court.

"Twenty five percent of the bed was destroyed.'' Another firefighter, Colin Eugene Swan, testified he saw Stancliffe in the kitchen trying to pull Dill out of the burning house by the leg. He said he ran to assist without fire gear. "I grabbed her by the leg and I did pull but she was hanging on to the door,'' he said.

When he got Dill outside, she continued to fight with Swan and told him that Stancliffe should have died in the blaze, Swan told court.

P.c. Kenneth Borden said that, at the hospital, Dill told a doctor she threw gasoline on Stancliffe. He then arrested her on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. Dill said she was sorry for what she had done.

Dr. Keith Cunningham said he examined Dill at the hospital and found bruises on her back, arm, and thighs.

"The multiple bruises were consistent with recent or sudden pressure consistent with being hit,'' he said. He could not say for sure whether a fist had been inserted in her vagina, as the court was told earlier.

Dill told the doctor the bruising on her arms was from a fight, he said. She did not volunteer how she got the bruise on her flank, which was consistent with a kick.

A friend of Dill's, Amanda Gordon of Middle Road in Paget, said that Dill had changed from a happy, outgoing person into someone who was very depressed since meeting Stancliffe in 1992.

"She called me at 7.30 p.m. and asked me if I had anything to put gas in,'' Gordon said. "I asked her why and she said it was because she wanted to set him on fire.'' Dill said when she first met Stancliffe he used to come to her apartment in Somerset, and intimacy was normal at first. But in February of 1993 he struck her on the neck and punched her in the face as she lay on the floor.

She denied ever having asked him to hit her and said, "I never wanted to hate Mr. Stancliffe''.