Serial firebug jailed for spate of blazes including arson of home

A serial firebug left his five-year-old daughter at home alone while he went out to start a fire amid a spate of offending including the arson of a home and setting fire to a park.

The man was sentenced over a number of fires around Brisbane. Picture: Glenn Campbell

A serial firebug left his five-year-old daughter at home alone while he went out to set alight bushland surrounded by homes and businesses in a North Brisbane suburb.

The blaze was one of three set by the man in a two-year period in which he also ignited a vacant home at Newmarket and deliberately sparked a grass fire at an Alderley park.

The 40-year-old father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court on Wednesday to offences of arson, setting fire to vegetation, setting fire to grass, and leaving a child unattended.

The court heard on January 9, 2020, the man went to Grinstead Park at Alderley and used a lighter to set fire to a pile of dry leaves.

When police arrived, he was still at the scene and falsely claimed to have seen youths in the vicinity.

Months later in October, he left his five-year-old daughter at home alone and travelled the Sparkes Hill Reserve in Stafford where he set fire to bushland.

After going home and changing clothes, he returned to the scene where he was arrested by police after being captured on security footage in the area, prompting the revelation his young child was home alone.

The man spent a number of months in custody, first serving out the remainder of a parole order for unrelated offending and then on remand for the fresh charges.

He was released on bail in July 2021.

Then in February 2022, he entered an unoccupied home at Newmarket and set fire to the property, causing extensive damage.

He was again captured on CCTV cameras and arrested nearby leaving the scene on a scooter.

Judge Carl Heaton KC took into account a letter of apology written by the defendant in which he showed insight into his crimes and the need for him to address the underlying causes of his offending.

“I accept that the long history of mental health issues is causally connected to your offending,” Judge Heaton said in sentencing the man.

He accepted submissions by the prosecution and defence that the defendant’s long standing psychiatric issues reduced his moral culpability.

Judge Heaton said he was required to impose a sentence that justly punished the defendant, deterred him and others from committing similar crimes, and that protected the community.

“You accept that whilst no harm came to anybody in the circumstances of the offences actually committed by you, there was great potential for harm should these fires have got out of control,” he said.

“This is therefore very serious offending.”

Judge Heaton took into account two years and four months already served by the man and imposed an 18 month prison term, immediately suspended for three years.

The defendant was also sentenced to three years’ probation which included an additional condition requiring that he submit to medical, psychiatric and or psychological treatment as required.