Michael Caldwell: Man sentenced over bushfires he maintains he did not light

A Traralgon man who deliberately caused a bushfire in Hazelwood has been sentenced despite clinging to his innocence. See his bizarre denial here.

A Traralgon man maintained his innocence as a judge read out his sentence after he was found guilty of deliberately causing a bushfire in Hazelwood in 2018.

Michael Gaythorne Caldwell, 78, was sentenced to five months in jail in the County Court sitting at Latrobe Valley on Monday after a trial by jury found him guilty of intentionally causing a fire and being reckless as to the spread of the fire to vegetation or property belonging to another.

The court heard Caldwell, who owned a scrap metal business, lit the fires to easily obtain metal from piles of junk rather than sorting through it and stripping it manually.

Judge Helen Syme said it demonstrated a “complete lack of regard for the property of others” and the “safety of the public”.

“You have little regard for society’s rules and norms,” she said.

As Judge Syme read out Caldwell’s sentence he interrupted from the court and said “I have not lit any fires anywhere, I am not guilty of any of those charges”.

“I wasn’t even there,” he yelled.

Caldwell set fire to a pile of mattresses in a clearing on private property, which is open for public use, on August 2, 2018.

The fire was later discovered extinguished by police, with an officer finding a large pile of burnt mattresses and burnt debris still smoking and smouldering.

Caldwell was charged with allegedly lighting three previous fires of a similar nature which generated sufficient concern from members of the public leading to the police investigation however, Caldwell was found not guilty of those charges.

Caldwell returned to the same spot and set fire to a load of electronic goods on August 5, 2018, with the CFA called to put the blaze out.

This blaze was described by the first lieutenant of the Traralgon South CFA Brigade as consisting of three fires, small fires, each about 1m in diameter.

The prosecution submitted at the plea date the fires were lit for the purpose of financial gain in the course of Caldwell’s business.

Defence Amie Hancock, described Caldwell as “jovial and pleasant” and asked Judge Syme to consider the lack of malicious intention behind the lighting of the fires and submitted that wet winter conditions lowered the risk of the fires.

“He was not lighting a fire for the sake of lighting a fire,” she said.

Ms Hancock also explained the fires did not spread to any neighbouring property or trees. However, prosecution maintained Caldwell was found guilty of being reckless to the spread of the fires and regardless of the outcome it was still a serious offence.

Prosecution asked for forfeiture of Caldwell’s car however this was not granted.

Caldwell will be required to undertake a 12 month community corrections order after he is released from prison.