Mark Peter Adams sentenced for $5m AMA House arson

After starting a $5m fire a disability pensioner stood by and watched, chatting to investigators, as a way to stroke his ego. But he didn’t understand how serious his actions were.

A pensioner’s 2018 stroke impaired his brain function so severely he did not wholly understand the significance of his actions that led to a $5m damage bill from a fire he started.

Mark Peter Adams, 55, has been jailed by Judge Emily Telfer in the Adelaide District Court over the arson of AMA House in 2020, as well as two breaches of bail.

The court heard Adams had lit the fire out of boredom and frustration partially caused by his inability to access his money which was controlled by a government agency.

In sentencing Adams to spend another seven months in prison on top of the 29 months he has already spent behind barns, Judge Telfer spoke of impacts to his impulse control caused by the stroke.

“The fire that you ultimately caused was much more serious than what you had intended,” she said.

Mark Peter Adams in custody charged with $2 million worth of arson, visits the scenes in Ward Street, North Adelaide with a judge and jury Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

“Your injury makes it more difficult for you to regulate your emotional states (and) as a result you’re more at risk of behaving in an impulsive way.

“Your capacity to consider the consequences of your actions is also impaired.

“Your moral blameworthiness is somewhat reduced by the fact you were operating under a cognitive impairment that reduced your capacity to cope with frustrating circumstances in which you found yourself.”

Prior to his sentencing, Adams walked into the dock, his distinctive gait and obvious frailty evident as he waved to his elderly mother who was in the body of the court.

In 2020, with the stroke continuing to impair his judgment, Adams made his way to the basement of the medical building before starting a fire in the bins that were there to bring some excitement to his life.

What he did not expect, Judge Telfer agreed, was the fire to spread from the basement, throughout the building through the airconditioning vents.

Mark Peter Adams has been sentenced for the $5m arson of AMA House in 2020. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

The fire extensively damaged AMA House in North Adelaide. Picture: Gabriel Polychronis

He did not comprehend, the court heard, the fire could ultimately destroy medical equipment, medical records and computer systems.

With the fire rampaging, and Adams’s excitement spruiked, the obviously impaired man stayed at the scene to allege he had seen a group of teens lighting fire nearby.

He told witnesses and the fire brigade of a “poorly portrayed story” of how the fire started.

Judge Telfer said Adams’s actions in “loitering” after the fire was, in fact, an attempt to only add to his excitement.

“Your behaviour in the aftermath of the fire was part of boosting your self-importance in the immediate aftermath of the fire, adding to the excitement and the alleviation of boredom that you were seeking,” she said.

“I accept that you lit the fire because you were bored, disengaged, frustrated and disinhibited.”

Adams was found guilty by a jury of a charge of arson earlier this year, and acquitted of causing two other fence fires.”

Judge Telfer sentenced him to a head sentence of five years and 12 weeks’ prison with a non-parole period of three years.

He will be eligible to be released in May next year.