‘Trash it, cause carnage’: Woman avoids jail after instigating two ‘revenge by proxy’ fires

A young woman who “used a man to do her bidding”, paying him to set two revenge fires that caused more than $500,000 in damage, has narrowly avoided jail. Latest from court >

Emily Kate King has avoided jail after paying for two “revenge by proxy” fires. Picture: Patrick Gee

A young woman who “used a man to do her bidding”, paying him to set two revenge fires that caused more than half a million dollars in damage, has narrowly avoided jail following a Crown appeal.

According to a newly published Court of Criminal Appeal judgment, the trouble started after early 2021 when Emily Kate King, then 26, started a relationship with Jarrod Minehan, who was married at the time.

At the time, Mr Minehan, his wife, his sister and his brother-in-law ran a concreting business at Cambridge.

As Mr Minehan’s marriage broke down, the judgment revealed, so did his relationship with his business partners, and he was removed from the company.

The court said King “felt very strongly” about how she believed her partner had been treated by his sister and brother-in-law – Rebecca and Christopher Kline – and decided to seek revenge.

She approached a man in December 2021, offering him money to damage property on her behalf.

Mr Minehan is not accused of any wrongdoing or having prior knowledge of Ms King’s offending.

While she and Mr Minehan were interstate, King sent the man a message with the Klines’ home address at Snug, telling him to “cause as much havoc as possible”.

The man attended the home with a friend and set fire to the Klines’ HiLux – destroying the car and the tools within it, causing a damage bill of almost $85,000.

The Klines were home at the time with their 13-year-old son.

The man then sent King proof of the fire with a photograph, and she paid him $500 before asking him to do a second job – this time at the Cambridge concrete company.

“Steal whatever you want to steal. Do whatever you want to do. Trash it, cause carnage,” King messaged to the man.

The next day, in the early hours of the morning, the man and his friend smashed a window of the business and entered, stealing a diesel heater, a welder and a radio.

The man then smashed the window of an Isuzu truck and poured petrol inside it, setting it on fire, with the blaze also damaging the concrete business premises – causing more than $500,000 in damage.

King paid the man another $500.

She later pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully setting fire to property, one count of burglary and one count of stealing – on the basis she abetted and instigated the pair to commit the crimes.

Noting King had been diagnosed with mental illness and had suffered a dysfunctional upbringing, the Supreme Court sentenced her to a 16-month home detention order and ordered to undertake 50 hours of community service.

But the Crown appealed, arguing the sentence was “manifestly inadequate”.

Justice Stephen Estcourt, Justice Robert Pearce and Acting Justice David Porter agreed, finding that although there were grounds for leniency, King’s “revenge by proxy” had a “high level of objective seriousness” with substantial damage and risk of injury, while using a financially-vulnerable man “to do her bidding”.

While King’s home detention remains, the court resentenced her to a 20-month suspended jail term with 210 hours of community service.

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