Pair guilty of setting fires

A Nelson couple has been found guilty of setting fires during an already fire-ravaged season in the Tasman area in February and March last year.

Benjamin Durrant and Abigail Page had denied setting the fires, one on the Moutere Highway and one on Pigeon Valley Rd.

It took the jury five hours to find them guilty on all charges on Friday.

It had been a terrifying summer for many already – with a massive fire accidently started on February 5 by a spark from farming equipment. It burned for weeks and was not considered controlled until March.

So when two fires showed up on roadsides – first on the Moutere Highway and then on Pigeon Valley Rd – how they started was a major concern.

In the first one, 97 houses were evacuated and damage done to nearby pine trees. The second was quickly put out and forestry workers stopped the car Durrant and Page were in in a dry riverbed.

In a two-week trial, the Crown said Durrant was upset after losing his firewood delivery job and that was his motive for setting fire to the trees.

Durrant admitted he was in the car and in the area but said he had not lit the fires.

His defence was that there was a lack of any direct evidence and the jury could not rule out that an accident had not started them.

However Page, charged with aiding and abetting him, said he lit them and she was powerless to stop him. She said he was unpredictable and she was just doing what he said.

Justice David Goddard had amended the charges Durrant faced before the jury began deliberations. He said Durrant now faced a charge of arson by damaging the pine trees on February 7 and attempted arson on March 6.

He said the jury had to decide whether he lit the fire intending to damage the trees, not just setting fire to the vegetation on the roadside.

He told them they could not convict Page without convicting Durrant. She could not have helped him if he was not guilty.

The judge remanded them until May for sentencing.