“Better to try a new hoax.”
He probably thought to himself: “nobody would suspect that a person would light themselves on fire!”
I thought that was extreme for a hoax, but it was the woman who threw something flammable on him and lit him up in self-defense. He manufactured the hoax from there, thinking no one would suspect he was the guy who assaulted a pregnant woman. What an idiot. The police weren’t imbeciles and connected the dots as to time, location and the rather odd fire element.