GUILTY OF ARSON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24716, 19 September 1941, Page 6

GUILTY OF ARSON

EX-SUPERINTENDENT OF BRIGADE AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 18, A novel condition that he should not again have any connection with fire brigades was imposed by Mr Justice Callan in the Supreme Court to-day upon Brian Clark Edwards, aged 27, until recently superintendent of the Coromandel Fire Brigade, who admitted setting fire to three buildings in Coromandel and had given as the reason his desire tn test the efficiency of the brigade. Making a plea for probation, Mr Butler said that Edwards was a service car driver who had previously been in the Onchunga Fire Brigade. In his spare time at Coromandel he became zealous in rehabilitating the local brigade. While somewhat under the influence of drink, the prisoner conceived the extraordinary idea of starting fires in disused sheds and an unoccupied “ bach.” The first two fires were extinguished, but the “ bach ’’ was destroyed. The judge said it was somewhat unusual for the court to be able to feel justified in admitting to probation a man who had deliberately committed the grave crime of arson on three occasions. It was a truly extraordinary case. Edwards would be admitted to probation for three years, with the conditions that be should take out a prohibition order, that he should live where directed bv the probation officer, that he should riot be connected with any fire brigade and that he should pav from his own earnings £75 to the owner of the “bach," and 21s, the costs of the prosecution.