In November 2011 Natasha Beth Crossman, 36, appeared before Judge

Robison in Armidale District Court and pleaded guilty to a charge of intentionally or recklessly damaging property by fire.

When her trial first began, Crossman had pleaded not guilty to three charges - assault, attempted murder and, alternatively, destroying property by fire.

On day three of the trial she formally entered a plea of guilty to the alternative charge and the jury was dismissed.

The charges arose from alleged incidents, which occurred in Walcha more than three years ago.The charges were:

That on January 17, 2009, she assaulted her husband, Colin Crossman, by hitting him in the head with a blunt instrument in the family home in Croudace St, Walcha; and

That on the morning of January 20, 2009, she set fire to the main bedroom of the home with the intention of killing Colin Crossman; or, alternatively, with the intention of damaging property.

At the commencement of the trial, Crown prosecutor John Stanhope, addressed the jury of seven men and five women for almost an hour outlining the Crown's case.

Mr Stanhope said the Crown case was "a circumstantial one".

"It's a jigsaw puzzle with little bits of evidence which, at the end of the day, you will have to take and construct the complete picture," he told the jury.

The accused and Colin Crossman had met and formed a relationship before purchasing the Croudace St home, where they lived with two young children, a girl and a boy.

Mr Crossman had been asleep in bed about 4 o'clock on the morning of January 17, 2009, when he woke up because he had felt a blow to the temple.

When he questioned the accused, she referred to having seen a shadow or a figure in the house; giving chase and seeing the figure jump over the back fence.

The garage door had been interfered with, and Mr Crossman told police a hammer was missing.

It was later found in a cupboard in the house and subjected

to forensic testing, but there was no evidence to link it with the attack on Mr

Crossman.

Three days later, at 4 o'clock on the morning of January 20, there was a fire at the house. A next-door neighbour was wakened by the accused at the front door (holding the boy, the girl was staying with friends) yelling that the house was on fire.

They went into the Crossman residence, found Mr Crossman alive and brought him out.

Mr Stanhope said evidence would show the fire had begun in the main bedroom, apparently in the area of the bed.

A container in which people would normally store petrol was found in the room,

but without a lid, which was found in a different location.

Mr Stanhope said a specialist crime scene investigator would give evidence that the fire had been deliberately lit.

Evidence would also show that petrol or some other inflammable liquid had been located in carpet samples.

The accused told detectives that she had been in bed with her husband when she was woken by the fire alarm.

She said she shook him and tried to wake him up before throwing some clothes on the flames, and then tripped over the petrol can.

The accused said she believed Mr Crossman was following her but, realising he was not out, went back to help.

Mr Crossman was transported to Tamworth Base Hospital, where blood and urine samples were taken, the results of which produced "a range of medications". Mr Stanhope said the accused had claimed Mr Crossman had been "a bit strange" after eating some Cadbury's chocolate-coated almonds. Police later found a box of almonds, along with a letter addressed to the management of Cadbury's claiming poisoned boxes had been distributed in Australia.

On a computer to which the accused had access, they found evidence of searches such as "Cadbury + almonds + bad" conducted in December.

Police also found searches for a number of the drugs that were found in Mr Crossman's system.

"Fill the jigsaw in and the picture begins to emerge," Mr Stanhope told the jury.