Firebugs Justin, Scott Hagley, Andrew Valli plead guilty to lighting 44 deadly blazes
Three Bendigo firebugs who lit 44 blazes at the height of the deadly Black Summer bushfires wanted to bring the inferno to Central Victoria.
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Three Bendigo men who lit 44 fires at the height of the deadly black summer bushfires said they wanted to bring the inferno to Central Victoria, a court has heard.
Justin Hagley, 38, Scott Hagley, 37, and Andrew Valli, 32 pleaded guilty to a string of arson related charges at Melbourne County Court on Thursday.
The three men were ten-pin bowling buddies, who played under the team names Bad Boys 2 and The Three Terrors, at the Friday night Star Bar league in Shepparton.
But the court heard the Huntly brothers and their Quarry Hill friend had another Friday night ritual — lighting grass fires along rural roads on the 119km highway stretch between Shepparton and Bendigo between November 2019 and March 2020.
The first blaze was on Friday November 8, 2019 when one of the men lit a grass fire at Burnewang on the side of the Midland Highway at 11.08pm.
Over the next 140 days the men lit 44 fires costing the County Fire Authority a total of $657,408 to extinguish.
Some of the fires burnt for days, with farmer’s haystacks, sheds, properties and fencing going up in flames.
In their most destructive night the trio lit 11 fires between 4.45pm and 11.40pm on Friday December 13, costing the CFA $350,033.
The largest fire was at a Avonmore property, where a sparkler led to 73 hectares of land being burnt, destroying $64,500 worth of fencing, hay and a hayshed.
The bowling buddies also lit a fire at the roadside memorial to the Hagleys’ brother, Matthew, who was killed in a car crash in 2010.
The firebugs were busted by a secret police recording set up in Justin Hagley’s car in March 2020.
The recording captured a boys-trip to Melbourne on Friday March 27 where they patrolled St Kilda yelling abuse at passers-by and looked for prostitutes before lighting fires along the highway.
“Can’t wait to get a big orange f —king flame going,” Scott Hagley was taped saying.
Police heard the men light a dozen sparklers which caused four fires and cost the CFA $28,628 to extinguish.
Minutes after lighting their 12th blaze at Tooborac, Northern Highway the men spotted the Heathcote police officers called in to catch them.
Oblivious to the secret recording device Justin Hagley told his co-accused; “They can’t say that we lit them because … they can’t prove that we lit ‘em”.
The three men were arrested and taken to Bendigo Police Station at 10.55pm.
Justin Hagley told police they were inspired by the Black Summer bushfires, which burnt 1.5 million hectares in Victoria and killed five people.
"We already had bushfires going in the Gippsland area, why not start something in the centre of Victoria?" he told police.
The maximum penalty for intentionally causing bushfire is 15 years.
But prosecutors will fight to exceed that penalty which has delayed their sentence.
The court heard Scott Hagley had been diagnosed with pyromania, but his co-accused had not.
“There is an emotional trigger behind pyromania,” Judge Peter Lauritsen said.
Judge Lauritsen said his fire obsession meant he was at great risk of reoffending, particularly if he remained untreated.
Scott Hagley’s lawyer Nicholas Rolfe said pyromania programs existed, but Judge Lauritsen said he was not certain of the effectiveness or availability of such a highly-specialised treatment.
Justin Hangley and Valli pleaded guilty to 14 charges of intentionally causing bushfires, and one count of attempting to light a fire.
Scott Hangley pleaded guilty to 13 counts of intentionally causing a bushfire, and one charge of attempting to cause of bushfire.
The three men have been in pre-sentence detention for 453 days and will be sentenced next week.
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