2/23/2021 Broome Primary School arsonist jailed for five years over fire and prison break - ABC

fire and prison break - ABC News

Broome Primary School arsonist jailed for five years over fire and
prison break
ABC Kimberley / By Hannah Barry

Posted Wed 3 Feb 2021 at 2:22pm

A prison escapee who set fire to a WA primary school last year has been sentenced to five years
imprisonment and ordered to pay more than $1 million in compensation.

The court heard Maude Dixon, then 22, was detained Key points:
at Broome Regional Prison when she used a
A Broome woman will spend an extra four
cigarette lighter to set fire to a puzzle book that she
years in jail over a fire that destroyed
then threw onto a mattress.
parts of a century-old school in the
Prosecutor David Robinson said the cell ignited and Kimberley
that Dixon used the subsequent lockdown to escape. Maude Dixon had escaped from Broome
He said Dixon used a faulty lock to access the Regional Prison and was attempting to
security fences before using her "acrobatic prowess" evade police when she lit the blaze on
January 12 last year
to swing between fences and an air conditioning
unit before scaling the prison wall. She was recaptured, but not before the
fire caused a damage bill in excess of $8
Dixon then ran to the nearby Broome Primary million
School, where she hid under one of the classrooms
before setting fire to a pile of rubbish.

The nearby hospital had to be evacuated over asbestos concerns and Dixon's own brother sent her a
Snapchat image of the school burning.

The court heard she replied admitting she had set the fire and fled the scene.

Dixon later called police and was picked up at the nearby Discovery Caravan Park.

In an interview, she told police the school "needed to be burned down anyway", but she felt sorry for
the children who were set to start school the following day.

Dixon will 'never return to Broome'

Dixon's defence lawyer Melissa Louw told the court her client was young at the time of the offending
and had previously experienced psychotic episodes due to extensive drug use throughout an abusive
relationship.

She said Dixon was in the grips of paranoid psychosis when she felt she needed to escape from prison
and later told officers she did not know "what the f***" she had done.

Ms Louw said she had lacked foresight of her actions, but had expressed serious remorse about the
damage she had caused.

"She will never be able to live in Broome again, she's come to that conclusion," she said.

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During sentencing, Judge Ronald Birmingham said he did not accept Dixon was still coming down
from her past drug use and that her actions had been "considered, planned and prepared".

He said her actions had been exceptionally dangerous and caused significant disruption to the local
school.

"A lot of people's childhood memories were destroyed," Judge Birmingham said.

"All of that's been taken away by your selfish act."

Judge Birmingham said while he understood her difficult personal circumstances and trauma, an
immediate term of imprisonment was the only suitable deterrent.

Dixon was sentenced to five years jail, backdated to January 12 last year.

She will be eligible for parole in 2023.

Judge Birmingham also granted the prosecution's application for Dixon to pay the Department of
$1,518,727 in compensation for the fire.

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 2/23/2021 Man jailed for deliberately lighting bushfires at Nowa Nowa in East Gippsland - ABC News

Man jailed for deliberately lighting bushfires at Nowa Nowa in East

Gippsland
ABC Gippsland / By Kellie Lazzaro

Posted Mon 27 Jul 2020 at 2:22pm , updated Mon 27 Jul 2020 at 4:17pm

A repeat arsonist has been sentenced to three years in jail for deliberately lighting eight bushfires in
East Gippsland during the summer of 2019.

Andrew Morgan, 32, formerly of Orbost, was sleeping Key points:

rough on a mattress on top of a picnic table at the
Andrew Morgan, 32, has been sentenced
Nowa Nowa Recreation Reserve when he lit the eight
to three years' jail for arson
fires on January 2 and 3, 2019.
Morgan said he lit eight fires at Nowa
The Victorian County Court heard Morgan told Nowa in January to keep warm and to clear
police he lit the fires to stay warm and to clear the the bush
bush along the river.
Morgan was homeless at the time, and
One of the fires grew to 50 metres in size, while two
suffers from drug-induced mental health
others grew to half a hectare and water bombing
problems
helicopters were called to respond.

Morgan pleaded guilty to eight counts of intentionally causing a bushfire.

"The fires were made more serious by the sheer number of fires you separately lit, the terrain in which
you lit them, and the difficulty of access firefighters had to extinguish them," Judge Gregory Lyon said.

Morgan was sentenced as a serious arson offender as he had been convicted of similar offences
twice before.

Arsonist suffers schizophrenia, court told

At 3:00pm on January 2, 2019, a family fishing by the river saw four different spot fires and called
police.

"In all, you lit seven fires on the afternoon of January 2, and this required a response from CFA trucks
and tankers," Judge Lyon said.

"Because of the difficulty in reaching the fires, further resources from police, the Department of
Environment … helicopters, waterbombing aircraft, and a bulldozer were deployed."

The fires were brought under control by 9:30pm.

The court heard Morgan lit another fire on Browns Road in Nowa Nowa the following day.

"An officer attended and saw you sitting on a log in the middle of the fire and you told the officer that
you'd lit the fire the previous night because you were cold and that the fire was doing a great job,"
Judge Lyon said.

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"You stated that you lit the fires the previous day to clean up the bush."

The court was told Morgan started taking methylamphetamines at the age of 25 and developed
psychotic symptoms leading to a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

He was admitted to psychiatric wards five times between 2012 and 2015.

The court heard in December 2015 Morgan was convicted for illegally lighting 12 separate fires.

In January 2017, he was convicted in the Bairnsdale Magistrates Court of criminal damage by fire and
placed on a community corrections order.

"Your offending on this occasion by the lighting of multiple fires potentially put
people's safety and perhaps even lives at risk," Judge Lyon said.

Morgan has already served 571 days in custody and must serve at least two years in prison before
being eligible for parole.

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 2/23/2021 Scott McArthur sentenced to seven years for lighting bushfires near Nowra - ABC News

Scott McArthur sentenced to seven years for lighting bushfires near

Nowra
ABC Illawarra / By Jessica Clifford

Posted Thu 18 Jun 2020 at 2:37pm , updated Thu 18 Jun 2020 at 3:45pm

A man who intentionally lit two fires on the New South Wales South Coast last year has been
sentenced to seven years in prison.

Scott McArthur, 41, showed no remorse for lighting Key points:

the fires in September, which could have burned
Scott McArthur, 41, says he does not have a
directly into homes backing into bushland at west
clear recollection of the day he lit fires
Nowra.
near Nowra, in NSW
At the time, large fires were burning in northern The sentencing judge said the fact that
NSW. there were fires burning in the state's
Two months later the South Coast region also north showed "increased recklessness"
experienced catastrophic bushfires. McArthur was sentenced to seven years'
jail and will be eligible for parole in 2024
A witness said she saw McArthur lighting the fires
on September 14.

She had seen him bending down, she said, and then saw flames and smoke.

She confronted McArthur, but he ran away.

The fires burned through more than 100 square metres of bushland before firefighters were able to
bring them under control.

McArthur was caught that day and admitted to police what he had done.

'Serious misconduct'
Speaking from Bathurst Prison via audio visual link, McArthur told the Nowra District Court that he
had been homeless at the time and lit the fires for cooking.

He said once they got out control he "freaked out" and ran.

He also said he was an alcoholic and did not remember the exact details of the day.

He then told the court he wanted to remain in custody, but he did not elaborate why. 

McArthur’s lawyer argued there was no accelerant used to light the fires and that made the offences
objectively less serious.

But in sentencing, Judge Stephen Norrish said the offences did amount to serious misconduct, given
the dry conditions and fires burning further north at that time.

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His honour said it showed increased recklessness.

Judge Norris also took into account that they were lit within metres of residential housing.

He noted there was no indication McArthur showed symptoms of pyromania or that he had gained
anything from lighting them that would indicate a psychiatric illness.

McArthur was sentenced to seven years in prison.

He will be eligible for parole in 2024.

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 2/23/2021 Serial arsonist jailed for setting fire to Wangaratta home as elderly neighbour slept inside - ABC News

Serial arsonist jailed for setting fire to Wangaratta home as elderly

neighbour slept inside
By court reporter Danny Tran

Posted Wed 9 Sep 2020 at 1:14pm

A serial arsonist who set fire to her elderly neighbour's home as she slept inside has been thrown in
prison, but will be eligible for parole in less than 18 months.

Lisa Hay, 36, was today sentenced in Victoria's Key points:

County Court to three years and nine months in
Catherine Siegers heard her smoke alarm
prison over the blaze that the judge called
and saw a pink light outside her door
"thoughtless, cowardly and dangerous".
The 81-year-old escaped from her
Hay, who appeared by videolink from prison, was Wangaratta home as it filled with smoke
found guilty of arson and reckless conduct
endangering life earlier this year. The convicted arsonist previously lit four
other fires at another neighbour's home
But years after her crime, the mother-of-three has
still not explained why she lit the fire which consumed the Wangaratta home of pensioner Catherine
Siegers.

The court today heard Hay was also responsible for lighting multiple blazes at a separate neighbour's
home.

"You have exposed an elderly lady to terrible danger and destroyed her lifetime memories," Judge
Damian Murphy said, as he sentenced her as a serious arson offender.

"You are to be utterly condemned."

In the early hours of September 1, 2017, Ms Siegers was asleep in her weatherboard home when she
was woken by two loud noises in her backyard.

Ms Siegers, who was 81 at the time, heard her smoke alarm and saw pink light outside her door.

As smoke filled the home she had lived in for decades, she felt her way around the house and was able
to escape.

The pensioner, who suffers from a heart condition, was later taken to hospital due to smoke inhalation
and anxiety.

A jury ultimately accepted Hay had scaled the Colorbond fence which separated her home from her
victim's, and started the blaze by setting fire to the back verandah.

Investigators later found Hay's fingerprints on the fence.

But when she was interviewed by police, Hay told investigators she was a heavy sleeper and she
denied setting the blaze, an excuse which the jury rejected.

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"You were reckless to the fact that she was an elderly woman living alone and
probably asleep at the time," Judge Murphy said.

Victoria's County Court heard that months earlier, Hay had lit four fires on her other next door
neighbour's property.

In a victim impact statement, Ms Siegers told the court the blaze had destroyed precious pre-war
heirlooms and memories which had been forever lost to her.

She spoke of her sadness at losing the home her children grew up in and said her health had never
been the same since.

"The stress of the night has taken its toll," Ms Siegers said.

Hay, who has a substance abuse disorder, has an extensive criminal record which includes assaulting
police, failing to render assistance and making threats to kill.

Judge Murphy said her crime was shocking.

"You must bear high moral culpability for this crime," he said.

He sentenced Hay to three years and nine months in prison.

She will have to serve at least one year and 11 months before she is eligible for parole.

With time already served, Hay could be back in the community in about one year and four months.

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 2/23/2021 Volunteer firefighter jailed over Primrose Sands arson during spate of fires - ABC News

Volunteer firefighter jailed over Primrose Sands arson during spate of

fires
By Edith Bevin

Posted Fri 23 Nov 2018 at 2:57pm , updated Fri 23 Nov 2018 at 3:16pm

A volunteer firefighter who set fire to a Primrose Sands home east of Hobart has been sentenced to
two-and-a-half years in jail.

Adam Daniel Patterson helped put out at least nine deliberately lit fires in the beach community in
2016.

On May 15 of that year, he was also the first firefighter to respond to the call about a blaze which had
engulfed a home valued at $250,000.

The difference this time, he was responsible for lighting it.

The now 33-year-old father of two initially denied he was involved but the court heard that as the
evidence mounted against him, he confessed to police, telling them it was "the worst mistake of me
f***king life".

The beachside home had belonged to the same family for 35 years and they loved it.

Patterson had parked his wife's car nearby and then walked up from the beach into the unfenced
backyard of the property, deliberately starting a fire in a woodpile under the house.

Patterson had been a volunteer firefighter in the area for the previous three years.

He was not accused of starting the other fires during the spate of arsons attacks in 2016.

The Supreme Court in Hobart heard that with his training and experience, Patterson would have
known the fire would spread to the floor and walls of the weatherboard home.

Responding firefighters, including Patterson, managed to contain and extinguish the blaze, but not
save the home. The damage was so great it had to be demolished.

Patterson told police he had no idea why he had done it.

"I don't know, I've got no idea, everything is blank, that's all — it's just a bad dream, I wish it would all go
away," he told police in an interview in June 2016.

"It was just a mistake, an honest mistake, I f***ked up.

"It just happened, I was driving along, I've got no explanation for it."

The court heard Patterson did not light the fire out of any malice towards the owners, nor for financial
gain, fascination with fire or mental illness.

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Joining fire service 'not a ruse'

His lawyer Philippa Morgan told the court Patterson had no memory of setting the fire and was going
through marital and financial hardship at the time.

She said it was also not the case Patterson had become a volunteer firefighter for untoward reasons.

"Mr Patterson's motive to volunteer for the fire service came from a very sincere place," she said.

"It's something that his father did, it's something that he derived some enjoyment from the
engagement with the community.

"It wasn't a ruse or to cover some sort of attraction to fire lighting."

The Department of Public Prosecutions told the court the damage caused by Patterson's actions was
"significant" and the potential danger to the health of firefighters and neighbours was great, as was
the risk of the fire spreading to other homes and bushland.

Justice Stephen Estcourt said Patterson's training and experience as a firefighter would have made
him aware of the dangers and the impact of arson, not only to the home-owner but the whole
community.

He sentenced Patterson to two-and-a-half years' jail, ordering he not be eligible for release until he
had served at least 15 months of that sentence.

Patterson was also ordered to pay compensation to the home owner and the insurance company.

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