Killarney Vale: Chloe Jane Townsend charged with lighting fire has history of intimidation, court hears

A woman charged with deliberately setting fire to another woman’s garage was on a bond at the time for intimidation and distributing an intimate image of a rival, a court has heard.

A 25-year-old woman has been refused bail after facing court last week charged with allegedly setting fire to the garage of another woman’s Killarney Vale home.

It comes as a court heard the accused was already on a community corrections order (CCO) for two years after pleading guilty to intimidation and distributing an intimate image of another woman who had started dating her ex-boyfriend.

Chloe Jane Townsend, of Killarney Vale, faced Wyong Local Court on Friday after being charged the night before with damaging property by fire.

Emergency services were called to a house on Avery St, Killarney Vale, at 6.40am on Wednesday, May 18, following reports of a fire in a garage.

Fire and Rescue NSW attended and extinguished the blaze, with the garage sustaining extensive damage.

Fire and Rescue NSW attended the blaze on Avery St and extinguished the fire (file image).

A 26-year-old woman, who was home at the time, was uninjured.

Tuggerah Lakes police established a crime scene and began investigations before arresting Ms Townsend the following evening.

She was refused bail to appear at Wyong Local Court on Friday where she was again formally refused bail.

The court heard Townsend was known to her alleged victim and had two outstanding matters before the court including a charge of driving while disqualified and possessing a prohibited drug.

Townsend pleaded guilty to both offences with an agreed set of facts stating police noticed her about 12.30am on October 9 last year driving along Playford Ave, Killarney Vale.

Ms Townsend allegedly started a fire in the garage of aother woman’s house at Killarney Vale. (File image)

On seeing the police vehicle Townsend “accellerated harshly” around a corner before pulling over and turning her car’s headlights off.

Police pulled up alongside her vehicle and she admitted she was disqualified and shouldn’t have been driving.

A search of her car also uncovered 0.4g of cocaine.

Townsend was adjourned to face the same court on June 9.

The court heard Townsend was also on a CCO for another charge of driving while disqualified when police stopped her behind the wheel of a Toyota Rav 4 about 4.15am on December 4, 2020, and two more CCOs from January 2019.

An agreed set of facts states Townsend started ongoing verbal arguments, mostly on social media, with a woman who began dating Townsend’s ex-boyfriend.

Ms Townsend allegedly began arguing with a woman who started dating her ex-boyfriend before posting an intimate image of her in the comment thread of a Facebook post. (File image)

On January 30, 2019, Townsend posted a status on her Facebook profile about her ex-boyfriend and his relationship with his new girlfriend.

“Both parties exchanged abuse towards the other, before the accused posted an intimate image of the victim to the comment thread,” the facts state.

“This image showed the victim in a compromising position fully naked and with her full face showing. The victim did not consent to the accused having or distributing this image.

Afterwards they continued to argue with Ms Townsend threatening she would come to the victim’s house.

The victim later told police she was scared for her safety and took screen shots of the conversation before blocking Ms Townsend.

Later about 6.30pm on the same day Ms Townsend sent a text message to the victim’s housemate saying she’ll see her Monday and she had been “waiting for this day to come”.

The victim went to police who attended Ms Townsend’s house and later arrested and charged her with intimidation and distributing the intimate image, which they found on her phone.