Beauty pageant finalist ‘sets roommate’s bed on fire while other students were home’

Miss USA hopeful Christen McAllister, 22, is said to have rowed with the girl before the alleged arson attack at the University of Louisville in Kentucky

A beauty pageant finalist set fire to her roommate’s bed at the girls’ student digs, according to police.

Christen McAllister, 22, is accused of carrying out an arson attack while at least two other students were inside the accommodation at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, USA.

The arrest citation, obtained by the Courier Journal, says she had been arguing with the roommate before the incident in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Miss Kentucky USA wannabe McAllister confessed to the alleged crime to officers and has been charged with first-degree arson, reports the New York Daily News.

The Courier Journal writes that the other two students at the off-campus apartment complex were also McAllister’s roommates and that ‘alcohol may have been a factor’.

McAllister finished fifth in the pageant last month after getting into the top 15 the previous year.

She wrote on a GoFundMe page, raising money for her beauty queen bid, that the event “is a wonderful way to get involved with the community”.

The scholar added: “Through this experience I will be able to learn and absorb a great deal of information, which will carry on with me throughout my lifetime.

“If selected as Miss Kentucky USA, I will move on to represent my state through the plethora of opportunities provided, which will better prepare me for Miss USA 2017.”

She was able to raise her online goal of $2,500 (£2,005) to compete in the pageant.