- Home
- What?s?on
- Observations
- Police?watch
- Home?security
- Advice
- Legal?directory
- Search?archives
- Contacts
Neighbour admits lighting fire that destroyed a house
A Woolston man with his face covered in flame tattoos has admitted burning down a neighbour?s house.
Grant Alexander Dey, 44, pleaded guilty to the charge of arson at a Christchurch District Court session inside the men?s prison today, after the police withdrew a charge of burgling the same Hobson Street house.
Judge Michael Crosbie remanded him in custody to October 11 for a sentencing date to be set. He called for a pre-sentence report but ruled out home detention by declining to get the necessary report.
Dey said he was hoping for a jail sentence of less than two years.
?So you would be supporting the Irish rugby team at the moment?? said the judge.
?I?m always pushing s?t uphill,? said Dey with a grin.
He has extraordinary tattoos covering almost all of his face and neck, mostly in the shape of flames and giving him a fearsome appearance.
In 2008, when he got drunk and threatened to kill two staff at Wainoni Primary School where two his children were attending, it led to all the pupils being brought inside and the school going into lockdown.
At that sentencing, Dey was described as a devoted father-of-four who had been depressed because his marriage of eight years had broken up because of his constant intoxication.
Today, police prosecutor Bronwen Skea told the court that Dey went to a neighbour?s unoccupied house, a wooden villa in Hobson Street, while he was drunk on July 26. He lit a fire in the lounge which engulfed the house in flames and extensively damaged it.
It caused $1000 damage to the owner?s property inside, but the cost of the damage to the Housing New Zealand home has not yet been assessed.
Dey told the police he lit the fire to get rid of someone he claimed was a P dealer.
?He said he was working for the Hell?s Angels who wanted P out of the neighbourhood and that?s why the fire was lit,? said Skea.
Dey has also admitted a charge of unlawfully taking a motorcycle.
