‘Enraged’ Portland man sentenced after setting best mate on fire during dispute

A Portland man has been sentenced in court after he poured two litres of petrol on his friend before flicking a cigarette lighter.

A Portland man who set his best mate on fire in a fit of rage may spend up to seven more years behind bars.

Umit Gorgulu, 40, on Friday faced the Supreme Court for sentencing over the April 2019 incident.

A jury had earlier found him guilty of one charge of intentionally causing serious injury but acquitted him on the more serious charge of attempted murder.

The court heard Gorgulu and his housemate, Kevin Taplin, left Portland to pick up a motorbike in Hamilton on the afternoon of April 18.

Gorgulu became “enraged” with Taplin just outside Hamilton and threw his phone out the window.

Taplin pulled over, Gorgulu stepped out of the car and Taplin continued on to Hamilton.

He returned a short time later but was abused by Gorgulu, so again left him on the side of the road.

Gorgulu hitched a ride into town and told the woman driving he was going to “f*** him up” and burn his bike.

The woman dropped Gorgulu off near KFC, where Taplin picked him up – Gorgulu screamed that he hated Taplin, threatened to kill him and repeatedly punched him in the head.

Kevin Taplin suffered horror injuries when his best mate doused him in petrol

The court heard Gorgulu yelled that he wanted to drive and hung onto the driver’s side door as Taplin drove at a walking pace, before he pulled over at a reserve.

When the car was stationary Gorgulu grabbed a jerry can from the ute tray and poured approximately two litres of petrol on his friend and the inside of the car before flicking on a cigarette lighter.

The court heard Taplin was “engulfed in flames” and rolled out of his car and onto the ground while neighbours rushed to his aid and hosed him down.

He was flown to the Alfred hospital with severe burns to his head, chest and hand and lung and eye injuries.

He spent about three weeks in an induced coma and underwent numerous treatments, skin grafts and surgeries in the weeks afterwards before he was eventually released from a rehabilitation hospital in June.

Justice Amanda Fox said Taplin had endured “horrific injuries” and “excruciating pain” and had been left with physical, psychological and emotional scars.

She said he no longer believed he could trust anybody and his physical scars were a lifetime reminder of what he had experienced.

The court heard Turkish-born Gorgulu, who had a criminal history, had met the diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder.

Justice Fox said it remained unclear exactly why Gorgulu became so enraged but what was clear was that his anger “did not abate” from when he was left on the highway to when he “spontaneously” decided to set his mate on fire.

“You had the opportunity to walk away from the situation but chose to remain in the circumstances where you were enraged…. You clung to his vehicle to stop him from leaving.”

Justice Fox found Gorgulu, who had a limited work history at a kebab business and as a bricklayer, had reasonable prospects of rehabilitation with ongoing anger management treatment.

She sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven years.

His more than three years in prison, 1177 days spent in custody during the pandemic, were reckoned as time served.