Cellphone evidence earns arsonist 15 months in jail

Police found compelling evidence when they chased and caught a car with four young men seen fleeing the scene of an arson.

At least three of the four had used their cellphones to take photographs of the stolen car they had torched on August 14 last year.

Judge Murray Abbott described it as a "mindless, wanton, thrill-seeking escapade". He saw Troy Christopher Lowry's photographs when Crown prosecutor Xannah Johnston handed him copies at sentencing in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

Defence counsel Glen Henderson said Lowry was the only one of the four youths to be sentenced as two of them had been discharged at depositions and a third had since committed suicide.

Judge Abbott sentenced Lowry, 21, to a year's jail for the arson and added two months for possession of an offensive weapon. The unemployed man had pleaded guilty to both charges.

Judge Abbott ordered him to pay $1000 reparations for the burned car and the possessions inside, plus the $40 fee the owner paid to tow the car.

He will also have to pay $1650 in outstanding reparations for earlier offending, but the judge remitted unpaid fines totalling $10,499 and added a further month to the jail term in their place.

Lowry will begin his term when his present sentence for driving offences expires in October.

- NZPA