No jail time for young arsonists who destroyed school building

TWO men who caused $6.5 million worth of damage when they set fire to a St Andrews Lutheran College building will not spend time behind bars for the “school prank”.

Harrison Luke Rogers, 20, and Jackson Thomas Plass, 21, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Southport District Court to arson for the blaze which gutted J Block at the Tallebudgera private school on Anzac Day in 2016.

Rogers also pleaded guilty to a second case of arson five days earlier when a Tallebudgera playground was burnt causing $9000 damage.

Crown prosecutor Gary Churchill said a group including the accused had gone to the school just after 10.30pm to “mess up lockers”.

Mr Churchill said it was alleged Hamstra set fire to a soccer ball, a book in a locker and a hat, which Rogers then kicked into a locker and closed the door.

The group thought the fire had gone out.

“It is not suggested that any of the offenders set out to intentionally or deliberately burn the school building but set fires to contents of school lockers,” Mr Churchill said.

The court was told the group left the school after they heard alarms but did not alert authorities.

Rogers and Plass both graduated from the school in November, 2015.

Judge Catherine Muir sentenced both to three years in prison, which was wholly suspended for four years.

Rogers was also placed on probation for two years and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service within the next two years.

“You conspired to create a cone of silence so the police investigation became far more protracted than it ought to have been,” she said.

The group was not charged until late in 2017.

A third man, Paul Hamstra, who is the alleged ringleader, is still before the courts and is yet to enter a plea.

Hamstra is due to next appear in court on May 15.