A MUM of two has today been found guilty of attempting to murder her sister by torching a house in a bid to burn her alive as she slept.

Cathy Bartlett cried in the dock as jurors returned unanimous guilty verdicts, having also convicted her of 13 counts of ripping off elder sister Rachael to the tune of more than £100,000.

The 30-year-old now faces a lengthy jail term for what the court heard was a "significantly premeditated" crime that had serious aggravating factors.

Jurors at Winchester Crown court have been deliberating their verdicts for two days As the foreman returned the verdicts there was sobbing from the public gallery where victim Rachael, 34, was sat, being comforted by friends.

Just yards away from her sat her parents, Michael and Frances, who are separated but have both given evidence on behalf of Bartlett's defence.

The court had previously heard how the Bartlett family had been torn apart by the lies and deceit while Rachael had been left bewildered by her parents choosing to believe and side with Bartlett, who is said to have twice tried to kill her in ferocious fires.

As reported, the first blaze happened in March this year at the home of their father Michael, in Whitemoor Lane, Winsor, which was razed to the ground in the early hours of March 6.

Jurors were told that Bartlett was the prime suspect, fearing her treachery of her own sibling was about to be uncovered, but no charges were ever brought as all evidence was destroyed in the ferocious fire.

It was a miracle that Rachael survived, the jury was told, and she had her dog Jade to thank for the fact she escaped with her life from the burning mobile home.

The second blaze broke out a month later, in the early hours of the morning after Easter Monday, when a "calculated and devious" Bartlett poured petrol on the stairs of her mother Frances' home in New Inn Lane, and set it alight, having first disabled a working smoke alarm.

Rachael only survived after pulling herself through a Velux window onto the roof, from where she plunged to the concrete below after losing her grip.

The motive, the court heard, was because Bartlett was hours away from being found out by Rachael, who was set to meet with her bank where she would have discovered her accounts had been plundered.

Bartlett, a mum of two, had taken more than £130,000 and spent tens of thousands of pounds on Saints hospitality tickets, England rugby tickets, posh hotels and expensive vodka - lavishing her generosity on a lover, friends and even people she didn't know.

Bartlett will be sentenced at Winchester Crown Court next week.

She will also be sentenced after pleading guilty, while giving evidence, to stealing around £40,000 from her father.