Eight years' jail for arsonist with no regrets

File photo / APN

A Probation Service report says Phoebe O'Donaghue has no regrets, no remorse, and no empathy for the family whose house she torched.

The pre-sentence report said that it did not bother the 28-year-old that the house was burnt, she did not care if she was imprisoned, and she thought the family should count themselves lucky that they didn't die.

In the Christchurch District Court on Friday Judge Stephen Erber jailed O'Donaghue for eight years with a non-parole period of five years four months, the Christchurch Court News website reported.

Judge Erber said the arson was almost the worst possible case of its kind as O'Donaghue set fire to a house in the North Island, at 2am, when she would have known that a family was sleeping there.

She was convicted and sentenced on charges of arson knowing that danger to life was likely to ensue, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The court was told the victim of the was a witness to a burglary and the alleged burglar wanted to persuade him not to give evidence in court.

The alleged burglar discussed it with O'Donaghue and she was to talk to the victim at a tavern, but he didn't appear.

On October 11 O'Donaghue took methamphetamine, got a car, and went to the victim's house. She used a molotov cocktail to burn the house down.

The family woke to sounds of breaking glass and managed to escape, but the house was completely destroyed.

The family of four read their victim impact reports to the court at the sentencing.

The father said the family had bought their dream home but now everything they had worked so hard for had disappeared.

The children woke up in the middle of the night screaming, and they had lost everything in the house.

The mother said she now had panic attacks and was on medication. She said her daughter's trust in people had gone, and she could not believe someone could intentionally inflict a fire on innocent children.

One daughter, aged 13, said she went into shock and couldn't talk. She now had nightmares and woke up crying and sweating. When the washing machine or dishwasher bleeped she would feel panic, she said.

The other daughter, aged 11, was too emotional to read her report so her father did it for her.

It said that she had to leave the room when fire safety advertisements came on television. She lost a precious budgerigar in the fire. She had flashbacks to the fire and sleepless nights. She said they were homeless and she missed being a family.

Judge Erber told O'Donaghue that she had almost wrecked the family, and had caused them a hurt that they would go to their grave with.

He said O'Donaghue had had a chaotic life, with drug and medical problems, and her psychiatric report said she was defiant, oppositional, and angry.

O'Donaghue had written a letter of apology to the family which they read before they came into court, but the father told Judge Erber that he did not accept it, did not believe it, and said that they were just words on a page.

Judge Erber said O'Donaghue had been victimised while in prison, and her bedding and possessions were set alight. He said he was sorry for that, but that the offence was committed to bring pressure on a witness, and it was important witnesses were not put under pressure.

He said there was no chance that O'Donaghue could pay reparation for the physical damage, but made an order for $2000 emotional harm reparation to be paid to each member of the family.

- NZPA