A young woman set fire to her home while she was inside and told a friend: "I don't want to be here no more."

Jade Glenn was rescued from the blazing mid-terrace house in Richmond Road, Gillingham, and taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

Now the 21-year-old mum, who suffers from mental problems, is facing sentence after admitting arson.

Her not guilty pleas to arson with intent to endanger life and arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered were accepted.

Iestyn Morgan, prosecuting, told Maidstone Crown Court that Glenn contacted a friend in the early afternoon of June 6 and told her the house was on fire.

"The mental health team wouldn't help, so I lit the fire..." - what arsonist Jade Glenn told a police officer at hospital

The friend rushed there, banged on the door and shouted for Glenn to go outside. A neighbour kicked at the door and could feel the heat from the flames.

He managed to smash the lock and get in. As he did so, he saw newspapers had been lit near the front door.

At Medway Maritime Hospital, a police officer overhead Glenn being asked: "Why do you keep doing stuff like this?" and added: "You can't just set your house on fire."

Glenn replied: "The mental health team wouldn't help, so I lit the fire."

Mr Morgan said he did not have any information about the cost of the damage.

Louise Oakley, defending, said Glenn had a long mental health history. She had given birth to a boy in November last year, who was now being looked after by her mother.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC had indicated it was "going to be custody", but Miss Oakley said: "It may well be a community order of considerable length with mental health treatment could be appropriate."

A psychiatric report was being prepared "with some urgency" because of Glenn's vulnerability. Her mental health was said to have deteriorated after the child's birth.

She had been held in custody, but the judge granted bail conditional on her living at an address in Gillingham, an electronically-tagged curfew and not returning to Richmond Road.