The damage caused by the Fingal firebug in 2019 was unlike anything else seen in the Tasmanian legal history, the Supreme Court in Launceston heard on Thursday.
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Robert Peter Matthewson, 36, was found guilty of three counts of unlawfully setting fire to vegetation at Mangana in the Fingal Valley on December 8, December 18 and December 30, 2019.
In sentencing submissions by Crown prosecutor John Ransom and defence counsel Fran McCracken, it was stated that no other comparable crime had been considered by the Supreme Court.
Ransom submitted to Acting Justice Brian Martin that the December 30 fire, which Matthewson lit with an accelerant on a day of a total fire ban, had caused $30 million damage to timber industry assets including $5.7 million for Timberlands Pacific.
Fighting the fire cost Tasmanian Fire Service $3.7 million and involved 150 firefighters at its peak.
"The fire endangered the lives of many residents in Fingal and Mangana and was inconvenient to the public because it closed the main road to the East Coast at a time of year when it attracts significant traffic," Mr Ransom said.
The total area of the fire was 22,275 hectares including a second fire which started after spotting from the major fire.
Ms McCracken said she could take no issue with the damages and monetary value of the fire.
"It is unlike anything else this court has seen," she said.
Mr Ransom told the court that Matthewson had involvement in 18 fires between the ages of 11 and 18 years old and included houses, cars and hedges.
"There is no less than five prior convictions for arson," he said.
Matthewson also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault in October last year when he called triple zero and told police he had a firearm and intended to shoot people.
In a police interview afterwards, he said he wanted to die at the hands of police by forcing them to shoot him.
"I know it's selfish but I'm too gutless to do it myself," he said.
The court heard from comments on passing sentence in 2003 when Justice Peter Underwood remarked that wherever Mathewson went there appeared to be fires.
Mr Ransom said it was an extremely serious example of the crime which involved lighting three fires in a relatively short period and the third involving use of an accelerant on a day of a total fire ban.
The trial heard that temperatures were close to 40 degrees and winds 50km/h on December 30, 2019.
Acting Justice Martin remarked that Matthewson must have realised when he used accelerant that it would almost inevitably take off up the hill and escape the property.
The judge will hand down his sentence at 3.30pm on Thursday, August 12.
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