Victim’s fear as DV arsonist set for release within months

A woman who narrowly escaped a house fire started by her son-in-law now fears for her daughter’s safety if the man is granted parole in coming months.

A Brisbane pharmacist who campaigned against domestic violence as the president of his local community group returned home hours after being arrested for choking his pregnant wife and set fire to their house with the injured woman and her mother still inside.

His victim told a court of the terror she felt while being choked, and how she thought she would die, saying she fears for her life when her husband Curtis Shea Mickan is inevitably released from prison.

Her mother also pleaded with a judge not to let her daughter become a domestic violence statistic, saying Mickan was “unpredictable and dangerous”.

Mickan, 36, came home drunk after a football match in May 2021 and began attacking his wife, whom he threw furniture at, shook by her hair, verbally abused, bit and choked in a protracted and violent ordeal.

She called the police and Mickan was taken to the watch house but later released without charge.

Hours later he went back to their Wooloowin property to find his wife who was being supported by her mother after her injuries were treated at the emergency department of the hospital where she worked.

The victim being supported outside court. Picture: Tertius Pickard/NCA NewsWire

Chief Judge Brian Devereaux SC said Mickan reversed his own car out from under the two-storey, home then poured fuel over his wife’s car, turned on two LPG bottles and set fire to the accelerants before leaving.

His wife went downstairs and saw the flames and was able to get out with her mother, but it was too late to save the car, house and all their belongings which were destroyed, with an estimated damage bill of about $1 million.

Mickan on Thursday pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to seven charges including arson, assault occasioning bodily harm, choking, common assault and wilful damage.

Defence barrister Saul Holt KC said Mickan had been a well-respected pharmacist at Murgon northwest of Brisbane, where he was also the president of a community group.

“He raises in his own letter the irony that a significant part of that organisation’s work is dealing with domestic violence programs for men in particular who are perpetrators of domestic violence, he acknowledges and understands the deep irony of that,” Mr Holt said.

The court heard Mickan, who was supported in court by family and friends, had a longstanding anxiety disorder and had self-medicated with binge drinking.

The woman’s mother said Mickan’s betrayal “could not be measured”, describing the devastating impacts on their family and their fears for the future.

“My biggest fear is that (my daughter) is not going to be safe upon his release,” she said.

“Please do not let our daughter and our family become another statistic in domestic violence.”

Curtis Shea Mickan will be eligible for parole in September.

Mickan’s wife said she was continuing to pay the “heavy emotional, physical and financial price” of his crimes, saying she believed she was lucky to be alive.

“Whilst Curtis was choking me, I feared that he was going to kill me,” she said.

“The terror that I experienced that night has forever changed me.”

The woman said seeing her beloved home burn down, she felt a glimmer of relief that she might finally be free of the abusive relationship but said she quickly learned she was “far from free”.

“I believe that he is still exerting financial and coercive control over me because since then I am still in financial limbo.

“I feel like he’s actively trying to avoid me being free.

“I don’t feel I will ever be safe.”

Both the prosecution and defence submitted a head sentence of seven years was appropriate given the circumstances of the offending and the comparable cases.

Judge Devereaux sentenced Mickan to seven years’ imprisonment with parole after serving one third of that, or two years and four months behind bars.

Mickan, who has already served 634 days in custody, will be eligible for parole on September 15.

The house fire in Brisbane’s Wooloowin in May 2021