Hussein Kassem pleads guilty to lighting popular Crown Casino restaurant on fire
A man hurled a molotov cocktail made from a bottle of Jack Daniels into a Crown Casino restaurant after he was banned, causing $250k in damages.
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A man who caused $250,000 in damages after throwing a molotov cocktail into a Crown Casino restaurant after he was banned claims the blaze was “not an act of revenge”.
Hussein Kassem, 40, fronted the Melbourne County Court on November 28 facing three indictable charges, including reckless conduct and arson.
Kassem pleaded guilty to all charges, citing a lapse in taking his medication being the cause of an episode of psychosis as the catalyst for the crimes.
The court heard Kassem had initially lit a fire in the men’s bathrooms in the reception of Crown Casino, before leaving to collect a bottle of Jack Daniels whisky from his Southbank apartment and returning to light Bistro Guillaume on fire.
Kassem threw the bottle of whisky against a window in the alfresco dining area of the restaurant, before picking the bottle up, shoving his T-shirt inside and attempting to light it on fire.
The court heard he tried to light a flame for seven minutes before successfully igniting the shirt and threw the bottle inside the dining area.
Kassem then lit an artificial vine on the outside of the alfresco dining area, causing the restaurant to go up in flames.
All of Kassem’s actions were caught on CCTV.
The court heard the cost of the damages caused by the fire added up to $241,611.18
Kassem had been banned from Crown on September 21, 2022, prior to the arson incident, for allegedly making sexual remarks to a waitress, the court was told.
Despite this, prosecution lawyer Steve Tamburro said the Crown would not argue that the offending was connected to Kassem’s ban.
“Although context is important to the seriousness of the arson offences before the court, we don’t allege this was an act of revenge against Crown Casino,” he said.
The court heard Kassem had previously pleaded not guilty at the direction of his lawyer George Defteros.
In court on Tuesday, Mr Defteros said Kassem had been suffering from a psychotic episode caused by a lapse in his medication.
“Mr Kassem was suffering from the onset of a schizophrenic episode and was severely impaired at the time of offending,” Mr Defteros said.
“He had stopped taking his medication because he was experiencing other negative side effects from it.”
Mr Defteros referred to a psychological report undertaken to assess Kassem’s mental state at the time of the offending, which said in the context of the crime he was in a “highly symptomatic” state.
The court heard Kassem had been in a severe car accident in his mid 20s which left him with a serious brain injury, causing his current mental illnesses.
Judge Sarah Dawes ordered for Kassem to undergo assessment for a therapeutic community corrections order.
Kassem will return to court next week for sentencing.
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