Michael James Taylor pleaded guilty to breaking and entering

An arsonist who once threw molotov cocktails at a Maryborough home which burned to the ground has found himself back before court after he broke into a school and stole $25,000 worth of equipment.

The house in Churchill St ablaze in Feburary 2013. Picture: Contributed

A man who was sentenced to six years in jail for burning down a home in Maryborough has found himself back before the courts for other serious offending.

Michael James Taylor, 33, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to breaking and entering premises and stealing, attempted armed robbery and possession of a knife in a public place.

Taylor was part of a group of men who went to a Maryborough home on February 25, 2013, and threw molotov cocktails at the house.

At the time, William George Grimes, Xaen Lock and Taylor, who was then 21, all pleaded guilty in Maryborough District Court to several charges including attempted arson, wilful damage, threatening violence and burglary.

Taylor also pleaded guilty to one charge of arson.

He was sentenced before Judge Carl Heaton for the new offences.

Mr Heaton referenced the fire in Maryborough in his sentencing remarks, with Taylor receiving six years in prison on that occasion, along with concurrent lesser terms for the other offences.

“On that occasion it seems clear to me that you sought to resolve your petty disputes with significant violence and the use of molotov cocktails and eventually set fire to a house and destroyed it,” Mr Heaton said in court documents.

According to the documents, Taylor had five pages of criminal history, with Mr Heaton saying the “offending reflects a long association with drugs and the lifestyle and criminal and anti-social lifestyle that goes with it”.

In regard to the new offences, according to the court documents, on February 27, 2023, Tayor had gone to a school, which was unoccupied at the time and broke in.

Once inside he took the CCTV cameras, but the cameras were still communicating with an external device so that the footage was able to be recovered, and Taylor was later identified.

The house in Churchill St ablaze in February 2013. Picture: Contributed

“It seems that you spent some time in the premises, and you stole property, including music equipment, amplifiers, electronics and other items, which total $25,066.54,” Mr Heaton said,

“During the day, you were communicating with contacts with a view to offloading the stolen property and offering those contacts a share in the proceeds.”

Later that day, Taylor was discovered by a complainant at the school piling up more equipment to steal, according to the documents.

“You then confronted him with a 30 centimetre straightedged kitchen knife, which you got from your backpack, and gestured it towards him,” Mr Heaton said.

“He then fled and you did also. So that is what is count two on the indictment, the offence of attempted armed robbery.”

Taylor went to the premises next-door and was found shortly afterwards by the police.

He had been on parole at the time of committing the offences.

According to the documents, Taylor was born in Newcastle and raised in Maryborough, had a difficult childhood and had been exposed to drugs, suffered from severe drug dependency and had been diagnosed with drug-induced schizophrenia and PTSD.

He also had a history of major depression and anxiety.

“It seems as well that you have been able to abstain from drugs from time to time but perhaps ill-equipped to deal with life stresses have resorted to drugs and drug use as a means of compensating for life’s challenges,” Mr Heaton said.

Taylor was given a head sentence of two and a half years in prison with the 58 days he had spent in custody taken into account.

Convictions were recorded.

Originally published as Michael James Taylor pleaded guilty to breaking and entering