Home detention without a house
A PALMERSTON woman who set fire to the properties of her three neighbours has been sentenced to home detention in a caravan.
Donna Maria Te Wahia (59), of Palmerston, admitted a representative charge of Crimes Act arson relating to four separate fires when she appeared in the Oamaru District Court yesterday.
The police summary of facts stated that the defendant’s address shared boundaries with the three victims.
On the night of March 9 last year, Te Wahia was at her Burraness St home in Palmerston. She flicked cigarette butts and ashes over a boundary fence on to the Runbrake St property of the first victim. Trees and shrubbery caught fire, engulfing an area of about 5sq m to 6sq m.
Te Wahia went back inside, but later saw the fire and called Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) to extinguish it; Fenz was called again two hours later after it reignited.
At 10pm on June 21, the defendant set another fire in the trees and shrubbery at the same address.
The following day, about 8.30pm, Te Wahia set fire to a large macrocarpa hedge near the boundary between her address and the second victim’s property in Runbrake St. The fire engulfed 5m to 10m of the hedge and spread to the boundary fence which bordered the two properties, before it was extinguished.
Later, about 10.30pm, the defendant set fire to the same hedge at the opposite end, and a small shed of her neighbour was also irreparably damaged in the fire.
At 1.20am the next day, Te Wahia was spotted by a police officer placing firewood and paper underneath her own house, which she set alight. The officer managed to extinguish the fire without any damage to the house. Te Wahia told the police officer she wanted to burn her house down.
Counsel Katherine Henry said her client had sold her home to give her victims ‘‘some comfort that she’s not coming back’’.
It had been well over a year since the offending and she had struggled to find somewhere to live, and was in a caravan.
She said Te Wahia had worked hard on her mental health and had adhered to strict bail conditions.
Judge Joanna Maze said the defendant’s actions had been ‘‘extremely distressing and very frightening to the victims’’.
Each had provided lengthy victim impact statements.
‘‘I can entirely understand their fear about what might have happened had they been away, alone or asleep,’’ Judge Maze said.
She noted the death of Te Wahia’s husband had been a lifechanging event for her, and preceded her offending, but the impact psychologically and financially on the victims was significant so her starting point for sentencing was jail. The Crown was not opposed to home detention, but was concerned the defendant lived in a caravan.
Judge Maze said Te Wahia should not be penalised because she lacked resources available to others, and home detention in the confined space of a caravan was still less confined than a prison cell.
Te Wahia was sentenced to seven months’ home detention with special conditions in place for the nine months following. She was also ordered to pay reparation of $1000 to each of her three victims.