By Andrea Petrie
VICTORIA'S worst killer, a former firefighter who deliberately lit a Black Saturday blaze that killed 10 people, has been jailed for 17 years and nine months.
Brendan James Sokaluk, 42, was sentenced yesterday after being found guilty last month of 10 counts of arson causing death in the Latrobe Valley three years ago.
Brendan Sokaluk will serve a minimum of 14 years in prison.Credit: Jason South
He will serve a minimum 14 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
Outside court, Rhonda Jacobs, who lost three family members in the fire, welcomed the sentence.
''Justice has been done and we're grateful, even though were leaving behind much-loved family,'' she said.
''We now have a grandson without a father, mother or brother.''
The charges related to the Churchill bushfire which a Supreme Court jury was satisfied Sokaluk deliberately lit on February 7, 2009.
Fanned by strong winds on a day of extreme heat and what Justice Paul Coghlan described as ''catastrophic'' fire conditions, the blaze burnt 36,000 hectares and destroyed 156 homes and community halls.
He told Sokaluk, a former Country Fire Authority volunteer, he was satisfied he had started the blaze at two locations alongside eucalypt and pine plantations at the intersection of Glendonald Road and Jelleffs Outlet.
He said Sokaluk must have known the potential damage the fire could cause but believed ''you did not intend to kill anyone''.
Citing the devastation portrayed by families of those who died in the many victim impact statements received by the court, Justice Coghlan said their pain was made significantly worse knowing that the fire was lit deliberately.
He said the fire would have been ''terrifying'' for all involved in the bushfire directly or otherwise.
The judge said the task of sentencing Sokaluk was difficult due in part to the fact he had autism spectrum disorder and an intellectual disability.
But he said protection of the community was the main sentencing principle.
Sokaluk sat drawing throughout the sentencing and appeared oblivious to what was going on.
Killed in the blaze were brothers Colin Gibson, 49, and David Gibson, 47, Alan Jacobs, 51, his wife, Miros, 50, their son Luke, 21, and Luke's friend Nathan Charles, 21, Martin Schultz, 33, Alfred Fendo, 58, and his son Scott, 27, and Annette Leatham, 51.
Sokaluk has already served 1041 days in detention.