Three arrested over fatal Sunshine North factory fire
Three youths have been charged over what police say was a deliberately lit fire at a factory Melbourne’s west in which two men perished.
Police & Courts
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Three young men have been charged over what police say was a deliberately lit factory fire that killed an innocent father and his mate earlier this year.
Police on Tuesday swooped on four properties in Melbourne’s west as part of an investigation into the fatal fire on Bunnett St in Sunshine North on February 23.
Two men who had been temporarily living in the building behind the factory perished in the blaze about 4am.
One of the victim’s daughters, Jade, this month made a passionate plea for the alleged offenders to hand themselves in after her 42-year-old father, Hai, was killed.
Arson and explosives squad detectives arrested the trio during a series of pre-dawn raids in and around Melton on Tuesday.
A 19-year-old Kurunjang man and an 18-year-old Melton South man were on Tuesday both charged with two counts of arson causing death.
They were also charged with three counts of criminal damage by fire and theft of motor vehicle.
They fronted Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday night.
Another Melton South man, 19, was charged with assist offender (arson causing death), three counts of criminal damage by fire and weapons offences.
He was bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Police seized a sword, two machetes, two knives and cannabis from one of the Melton South addresses while a gel blaster was seized from the home in Kurunjang.
Hai’s 18-year-old daughter, Jade, delivered the stern warning to the alleged offenders in a brave and passionate plea for answers.
She said the past six months without her father had been “difficult” amid a fresh police probe into the deaths.
Officers on July 5 launched the appeal for information, honing in on the owners of a white ute seen at the factory fire before it was found burnt out near Melton the next day.
One man was captured on CCTV pouring an accelerant on the factory door before setting it alight and fleeing in the ute.
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