Brave Tasmanian firebombing victims warn criminals: Beware long arm of the law

The victims of a southern Tasmanian firebombing incident have warned perpetrators they will eventually be caught, after three offenders who targeted them in 2021 were recently convicted.

CCTV security footage of two unidentified offenders who smashed windows at the home of Rebecca and Christopher Kline.

The victims of a southern Tasmanian firebombing campaign have warned perpetrators they will eventually be caught, after the Supreme Court recently sentenced the last of three offenders who targeted their home and business premises in 2021.

Rebecca and Christopher Kline told the Mercury that the incidents had left their children traumatised, and the family “hyper vigilant” for further reprisals.

The Concrete Tas Pty Ltd Isuzu truck which was destroyed in a firebombing attack in December 2021. Picture: Supplied

The petrol bombings, which occurred on consecutive nights in December 2021, caused more than $600,000 damage to vehicles and equipment at the couple’s family home in Snug, and at the Cambridge base of Concrete Tas Pty Ltd.

While the perpetrators have all since faced justice for their involvement in orchestrating the revenge blazes – sentenced to terms of suspended or actual imprisonment for crimes including unlawfully setting fire to property - the couple said they continued to be targeted.

Over the last two years, they have made police reports of further arson attacks, smashed windows at the family home, and slashed tyres on work vehicles parked at construction sites.

“We are now hyper vigilant, with the security that we have on our property,” the victims said.

“We are always looking at different cars that are driving by our place, just to make sure that somebody’s not sussing us out to come back to come back later.

Rebecca and Chris Kline HiLux utility vehicle was destroyed in their driveway during a deliberate firebombing in 2021. Picture: Supplied

“As recently as December last year we had another fire when we were away, with two men pulling up, spraying fuel on the front of our fence, and lighting it up.

“We’re lucky that it didn’t actually didn’t reach the structure of a nearby shed.”

Last October, Tasmania’s Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Kirsten Jade Donohue’s appeal against a sentence of three years’ imprisonment - with a non-parole period of 18 months - for burglary, stealing, and unlawfully setting fire to property committed during the 2021 attacks.

The court heard that Donohue had been promised $1000 for the commission of her crimes, but ultimately received nothing.

Last month, the Court of Criminal Appeal increased Emily Kate King’s original a 16-month home detention order, handed down for her role in paying for the revenge fires to be lit, to include a 20-month suspended jail term and 210 hours of community service,

“Steal whatever you want to steal. Do whatever you want to do. Trash it, cause carnage,” King had messaged Dylan Conor Booth ahead of the second 2021 fire, which destroyed an Isuzu work truck and caused $500,000 damage.

Booth, who was paid $500 by King for setting each of the petrol-fuelled blazes, was last week sentenced to a wholly suspended 18-month term of imprisonment for burglary and stealing, and an 18-month home detention order for unlawfully setting fire to property.

In his sentencing remarks, Justice Stephen Estcourt said that after Booth had successfully ignited the fire, he texted King to say “Trucks f****d and I grabbed what eva I could”.

Donohue, King, or Booth are not accused of any further offending since the 2021 incidents.

Nobody else was accused of wrongdoing in relation to the two events, or of having prior knowledge of the criminal activity.

The exhausted victims told the Mercury they had done “absolutely nothing” to deserve the attacks, and said they remained in fear of their lives.

“We were very lucky that in that first fire that it was a still night, because it was literally within two metres of our weatherboard house,” they said.

“All we had to fight it was the garden hose.

“We had to yell for our 13-year-old son to get up, and go out the back of the house and through the property next door to escape the blaze.

“These fires could absolutely be life-threatening.

“But we want to be very clear that we have a good record for catching these perpetrators, and we will continue to pursue whoever is responsible if need be.”