Lambkin brothers jailed after four fires deliberately lit during a heatwave in 2017
Craig Talman Lambkin and older brother, retained NSW Fire and Rescue firefighter Joshua Lambkin, have been sentenced to jail over several deliberately lit fires near Kurri Kurri in 2017.
Newcastle
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Craig Talman Lambkin, 29, and his older brother, retained NSW Fire and Rescue firefighter Joshua Lambkin, 31, have been sentenced to five years, six months and seven years, nine months in jail respectively over several deliberately lit fires near Kurri Kurri in 2017.
Three fires were started at Loxford, Chinaman’s Hollow and Kurri Kurri during a heatwave on January 18, while another blaze was lit in sweltering 41 degree conditions on January 24 at Kurri Kurri.
Outside Newcastle District Court on Thursday, the mother of Craig Lambkin’s partner, Barbara, said it was disgusting what the two brothers did.
“It’s disgusting actually, and I thought it would be a lot longer,” she said.
She said it’s had a bad impact on the whole family but is glad it’s all over.
“Try and get things back on track now and we’ll see how things go,” she said
“Try and get the kids back on track and just be there for them, build them back up.
“My daughter has been through so much and I expected more, he is the father of my grandkids, I expected the world out of him.”
The court heard on the January 18 the forecast was a very high fire risk with a temperature of 43.1 degrees and wind gusts of 63 kilometres an hour, and fires quickly got out of control, with 300 hectares burnt out.
Joshua was on patrol that day while brother Craig was at home when they exchanged a number of text messages, before Craig went out.
On January 24, it was similar conditions when Craig tossed a lit cigarette into bushland between the Kurri Kurri cemetery and a public swimming pool, before riding away on his pushbike.
The blaze got out of control and forced the evacuation of the local aquatic centre, nearby homes and Kurri Kurri Hospital.
As he rode away, Craig Lambkin was tailed by two witnesses, who called police as they tracked him to his Weston home, where he arrested him.
The court heard Joshua and another firefighter encouraged Craig to light the fires on the 18th and 24th of January in exchange for supplying Craig with Cannabis.
It’s believed there was also an agreement between the brothers that Craig would light the fires and Joshua would get paid to extinguish them.
The prosecution trawled through hours of CCTV footage, hundreds of text messages and telephone intercepts and relied on the evidence of witnesses to support their case against the brothers.
Judge Tim Gartlemann SC said the agreed facts did not establish any planning occurred prior to the offence and Joshua’s motive was to be financial gain, but an alternate hypothesis was that Joshua wanted to help Craig obtain Cannabis.
“The messages that Joshua sent Craig on 18th January do not support the reasonable inference that Joshua and another firefighter wanted to just fight fires and whether it was for financial gain,” he said.
“Joshua bears a high degree of culpability as a retained firefighter for his conduct encouraging Craig to lit the fires, as he would know the grave risk to property and life in doing so.
“Joshua and Craig must of understood the risk of the spread of fire and they must have known homes and property would be threatened, but still disregarded the risk to the community.”
While the judge noted both Craig and Joshua showed shame and regret for their offences, he said the harm to the community must be recognised. He also stated that Joshua’s moral culpability was greater than that of Craig’s.
Both were handed down an aggregate sentence. Craig was given a five year, six month jail sentence, with a non parole period of three years and eight months, while Joshua was jailed for seven years and nine months, with a non parole period of five years and two months.