Nine years for setting fire to girlfriend’s leg

By Linda Cicoira

     The 75-year-old man who used lighter fluid to set his former girlfriend’s leg on fire in 2022 was sentenced to nine active years in prison Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court for the crime that happened at his house in Saxis after a day of drinking.

     The victim, Denise Bradford, said she refused to drive him to Keller, so Anthony Page (Tony) Cutler, of Keith Lane, became verbally abusive and then pushed her to the floor and set her ablaze. She somehow managed to get up and barricade herself in an upstairs bedroom, not immediately aware of how badly she was injured. She stayed there overnight because she was scared.

     “He likely won’t see the light of day,” Judge Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. said, adding that the defendant’s age kept the judge from giving more time.

     Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney William Fox said the high end of the guidelines was not enough punishment for Cutler, who had no remorse. “It is unfathomable that someone would have to endure this,” he said. “She’s still scared and still having issues that she will have for the rest of her life.”

     At trial, Cutler said he didn’t remember what happened on that late November afternoon. But he later told a probation officer that Bradford did it to herself to get away from him.

     In a victim impact statement, Bradford said she was injured from her knee to her foot, that she had months of excruciating pain when walking or driving that was unbearable, and she was scarred for life with insomnia, nightmares, and severe anxiety.

     “He is not only a danger to me, but to society,” she wrote.

     Bradford testified she had known Cutler since she was 15 and that they had lost track of each other for about five decades. “He was getting more and more violent,” she said. Before she could get up off the floor that day, he grabbed the lighter fluid and she thought he was coming at her face. Instead, she said, he shot the stream on her leg before setting her on fire. He laughed and threatened to cool it off by pouring a beer on it. She was able to “slap” the drink out of his hand, she said.