A 22-year-old Whyalla man will serve less than four years in prison for endangering the lives of two adults and two children by setting fire to a unit they were occupying.
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Andrew Davies faced the District Court in Adelaide yesterday to receive sentencing for three counts of arson and one count of aggravated endangered life.
Judge David Lovell sentenced Davies to a reduced prison term of three years and 10 months with a non-parole period of two years and eight months.
The sentence will be backdated to when Davies was first taken into custody on October 28, 2013 following his voluntarily attendance at the Whyalla Police Station on October 26.
The first arson incident took place in Whyalla on July 23, 2012 when Davies set fire to a vehicle using a soft drink bottle full of petrol.
The vehicle was valued at about $4000 and was written off, with Davies later telling police he committed the offence because he thought the owner had been “hitting on a mate’s girlfriend”.
On August 10, 2013, at 2.15am Davies attended a unit in Whyalla, again with a bottle of petrol, and set fire to another vehicle parked out the front.
This vehicle was also destroyed with Davies later explaining to the police that the owner of the vehicle had allegedly assaulted him.
On October 24, 2013 Davies again attended a unit in Whyalla with a bottle of petrol.
He left a threatening note under a rock by the screen door before setting the outside of the unit alight and throwing a rock through the window so the fire could enter inside the premises.
At the time, there were four people inside the home - two adults and two children.
Davies later admitted to knowing there were occupants inside the home at the time he lit the fire. No-one was injured as a result of the incident and the fire was extinguished with a hose from a neighbouring property.
There was minimal damage due to the quick actions of the occupants.
Davies told police he had previously been friends with the occupants but they had rejected him over an incident related to drugs.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Lovell said as the offences were Davies’ first as an adult and he had entered an early guilty plea, Davies was entitled to a 40 per cent reduction on his sentence.
The maximum penalty for arson of a building or motor vehicle is life imprisonment with the maximum penalty for aggravated endanger life, 18 years.
“Had it not been for your pleas of guilty I would have sentenced you to six years imprisonment,” Judge Lovell said.
“Had it not been for your pleas of guilty I would have sentenced you to six years imprisonment."
- Adelaide District Court Judge David Lovell
As part of Davies’ trial, he also underwent a psychological and psychiatric report which Judge Lovell mentioned in his sentencing remarks as “troubling.”
The report noted that Davies had “psychopathic personality traits” and the court heard that he also had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse.
At the time of offending Davies was using cannabis daily and consuming methylamphetamine to the value of about $100 per week.