Arsonist ‘needs 24/7 care’

Hospital turned woman away before house fire

SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 A LAUNCESTON woman who burnt down her Housing Tasmania home after receiving an eviction notice suffers from borderline personality disorder and needs “24/7” support, a court has heard.

The 53-year-old has pleaded guilty to arson, having doused the loungeroom of her Invermay unit with petrol and set it alight in May last year, weeks after she was served with a home.

The court heard the woman had threatened to burn down the home with herself inside but, when police arrived, she hid the can of fuel she had bought to ignite the property.

Police took her to Launceston General Hospital for a mental health assessment but she was deemed not to require notice to vacate the admission. The next day, she started a blaze which destroyed the home and caused $250,000 damage.

Prosecutor Luke Ogden said the woman left the house, scared she would die, and later told police that she “didn’t think [the fire] was going to be that big”.

She was taken for a second mental health assessment in two days, this time at the North West Regional Hospital, where staff again determined she did not require admission.

Defence lawyer Hannah Goss said her client had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, a condition that caused her to react to stressful situations “with maladapted strategies”.

Ms Goss said the woman had been living at the unit on her own until she was placed in a disability support home.

“It’s quite telling there are now two reports before the court saying [she] needs oneon-one, 24/7 care and support within the community … and at the time of the incident, she didn’t have anything close to that,” Ms Goss said.

She said the woman also had an IQ of 52 and suffered from a range of other conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnoea, and was finding life behind bars difficult. The court heard the woman had no prior convictions. She was remanded to reappear in court on August 6 for sentencing.

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