Home detention for arson attack on house
An Ashburton arsonist has been granted home detention for setting fire to the porch at a house with six children inside, including his own twins.
The arson followed the breakdown of a relationship for Michael Steven Marshall, 35.
After the breakdown of an earlier relationship, Marshall notched up convictions for wilful damage, breaches of the Telecommunications Act, and criminal harassment.
Now he has admitted the arson charge, as well as drink-driving and driving while disqualified. The case was transferred to the Christchurch District Court for sentencing by Judge Paul Kellar.
The judge said Marshall had already been disqualified from driving indefinitely. He had previously been caught drink-driving twice, with high levels of alcohol.
The latest arson in Timaru occurred on April 22, after his relationship broke down with a woman who is the mother of his twins, who were then aged less than a year. The couple had never been in a domestic relationship.
When she picked up the twins from Marshall’s address in Ashburton, he made some comment about who she was currently seeing. She had noticed that he was becoming increasingly jealous.
He then began making abusive phone calls and sending texts, including one reading, “If you want hell, this is what you will get.”
The woman went out that evening, leaving the twins and other children in the care of her son, aged 16.
Later, the son smelt smoke and asked a young brother to check it out. He did not notice a fire.
The mother then received a message from Marshall saying he was going to her house to burn it down and kill her children. She contacted her son, who could hear Marshall talking on a phone outside the house.
When the woman rushed home, she found considerable fire damage to the front porch. She and the son confronted Marshall and the son fought him and Marshall was injured.
The judge told Marshall: “You claimed at the time you could not remember anything about what at gone on, but clearly you have admitted responsibility.”
It was evident that Marshall had put out the fire soon after he had lit it, but the damage totalled $9128.
The offence was premeditated. The worst feature was the presence of the six children in the house. “Very serious harm could have ensued,” said Judge Kellar.
He told Marshall: “There is something in your character that causes you to behave in this way when relationships don’t go as you would like them to.”
He reduced Marshall’s jail sentence for his guilty pleas, and for the rehabilitation steps he had taken, and then decided that home detention could be granted in place of the prison term. Marshall will serve the 10-month sentence at an address in Auckland and he has also been ordered to do 200 hours of community work.
His car was confiscated, he was again disqualified indefinitely, and he was ordered to pay off the $9128 reparations for the damage.
Category: News
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