Leon Edwards: Dandenong man pleads guilty to setting fire to Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust home
A Dandenong man is the traditional owner of a land where he was once living — but that didn’t stop him from trying to torch it.
South East
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A Dandenong man has pleaded guilty to setting fire to property owned by a local Indigenous trust in 2019 despite himself being a traditional owner of the land.
Leon Edwards, 46, fronted the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court where he accepted the prosecution case that in December 2019 he set fire to a home owned by the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust, causing $46,000 damage.
The court heard that Edwards, on the morning of December 2, 2019, reached out to family members because he was “struggling” with mental health but felt that no help had been forthcoming.
Out of frustration Edwards, who was living alone at Toorloo Arms in Lakes Entrance in the east of the state, lit a piece of paper, placed it under the couch, before walking out.
Edwards then went to visit his cousin, who the court heard worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor, before he returned to his property and found the sofa on fire.
Tessa Theocharous, acting for Edwards, said her client was a traditional owner of the land where he was living.
Ms Theocharous said Edwards had an intellectual disability, and had an extensive criminal history.
She said that support was available for Edwards, and asked Magistrate Andrew Halse to have him assessed for a community corrections order
Earlier in proceedings the court heard that Edwards had also stabbed a man in Dandenong on July 15 this year with half a pair of scissors, leaving him with puncture wounds on the right hand side of his neck.
Edwards, who pleaded guilty to the stabbing, was said to have been on drugs in the victim’s living room at 11pm when he said he was going to hang himself, and that no one cared for him.
When a woman went to her car with the intention of driving to the Dandenong police station an argument ensued with Edwards and a man in the house, which led to the victim being stabbed in the neck and left with “three small puncture wounds.”
The man ran to the woman’s car and told her he had been stabbed.
Documents tendered by the court said when police arrived to arrest Edwards at the same address that evening, they found him asleep in the living room.
Edwards will return to court to be sentenced on October 11.