Haybarn arson earns six month term

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 4

Haybarn arson earns six month term

Six months imprisonment was imposed in the District Court yesterday on a man who was found guilty by a jury at his trial early this month on a charge of wilfully setting fire to hay, valued at $30,000, on Christchurch Airport Authority farmland in Wairakei Road. The defendant, Laurence Terence Hardman, aged 31, a sickness beneficiary, had denied the offence, which occurred last December 19.

Evidence at the trial had been that between 6800 and 6900 bales of hay, valued between ?25,000 and $30,000 had been destroyed, as well as a haybarn costing $BOOO to replace, and two covers valued at $6OO.

The defendant, who had slept out in the area, told the police after being spoken to at the scene, and said in evidence at his trial, that he had gone to the haybarn to smoke a cigar-

ette but his hand shook from his consumption of methylated spirits and the cigarette dropped on to straw, causing the fire. Defence counsel (Mr E. Bedo) asked Judge Pain, in submissions in mitigation of penalty, that he “err on the side of periodic detention” rather than imprisonment. He accepted that imprisonment could be imposed when the amount of damage caused was taken into account.

Mr Bedo said that it was doubtful whether, even now, the defendant knew in his own mind whether or not he had wilfully set fire to the hay. The defendant had no means to pay compensation. He had “conducted himself well” in a home in which he had been placed. The Judge said the jury had rejected the defence that the fire had been lit accidentally.

He said the offence warranted a year’s imprisonment but he would impose "half the appropriate sentence” because of the defendant’s personal circumstances. The defendant had serious alcohol problems, intellectual limitation, and was socially isolated. He was presented at the trial as a very pathetic character. He was legally responsible, however, for his actions and should receive a proper penalty for the of-

The defendant had serious alcohol problems, intellectual limitation, and was socially isolated. He was presented at the trial as a very pathetic character. He was legally responsible, however, for his actions and should receive a proper penalty for the offence. The offence was a serious one and caused substantial damage, the Judge said. The six months jail term will be followed by a year’s probation, with special conditions that the defendant live where directed, and that he undertake examination, counselling or treatment for alcoholism, as directed by the probation officer.