Fire charges heard

Press, 1 April 1989, Page 13

Fire charges heard

A man who is alleged to have lit a fire at the edge of Brooklands Plantation in high summer will face trial by jury in the High Court.

Laurence Terence Hardman, aged 35, a sickness beneficiary, is charged with wilfully setting fire to the plantation on December 30.

After a preliminary hearing in the District Court yesterday, Mr J. B. Andersen and Mrs O, M. Franks, Justices of the Peace, held there was sufficient evidence to commit him for trial. He was remanded in custody pending a date

for his trial. His counsel, Mr Tony Garrett, reserved the defence. . Sergeant John Dwyer prosecuted. Prosecution evidence was that the fire, lit near the roadway in Lower Styx Road, burnt an area of between 110 and 120 sq m of pine trees.

Hardman was seen near the area and when a man, who was speaking to him, pionted out the smoke, Hardman rode off on his bicycle. A passing traffic officer called for the Fire Service.

Acting on information

he was given he caught up with and stopped Hardman, who started crying and demanded to know what he had done. When told about the fire he kicked his bicycle repeatedly and said he did not light it deliberately and it must have started from a cigarette he had thrown away.

The police said Hardman claimed repeatedly that he had thrown away a cigarette butt. He claimed ownership of a pair of sunglasses which, the police said, were found in the area in which the blaze was fought.