Lonely dwarf guilty of arsons

Shane Reid's fascination with fire caused nearly half a million dollars of damage. Picture / Amos Chapple

A Hamilton dwarf turned to living at night among the lights of emergency services to escape a lifetime of teasing and ridicule.

Fixated by fire, Shane Anthony Reid would stand at a distance and watch his firefighting heroes douse the flames.

They were fires he has been found guilty of lighting.

In the Hamilton District Court last night, the 27-year-old was found guilty of arsons at Cambridge High School on March 16 last year and Forest Lake Primary School on May 20 last year.

He was found not guilty of the arson of Te Rapa police station on May 21, 2001.

His fascination for fire has caused nearly half a million dollars of damage.

Detective Scott McDougall has known Reid since 1997, when Reid was a complainant in a court case he investigated. Mr McDougall has made time for Reid over the years and, like many, seems sympathetic to his plight.

Reid lived alone in a sparsely furnished Te Rapa flat with no friends to speak of. Since arriving in Hamilton at 18, he has lived his life in darkness, his day starting about 10pm, when he would wander or drive the streets spending time in service stations asking attendants questions - What were they doing? Why? Could he help stack shelves?

They would all eventually get sick of him and move him on.

At other times, Reid chased fire engines or camped on the hill outside the Waikato Cathedral Church of St Peter looking down on the Hamilton Central police station waiting for the lights and sirens to go.

Fascinated by the world of emergency services, Police Ten 7 and Third Watch were his television favourites.

"He's very knowledgeable. He knows all the fire trucks and the equipment they use, he knows a lot of the police officers in Hamilton by name," Mr McDougall said.

Reid liked the thrill of watching his handiwork and outsmarting the police, he said.

He even discussed the fires with his caregiver Christine Davies, from the Community Living Trust, asking about fires - the best way to light them, what accelerants to use.

But for all his inquisitiveness, Reid was lonely.

In court, he talked about children's television character Barney, whom he would watch during the day in his little flat.

"He's just a friend," Reid told the court. "I'm lonely most of my life. I want to live with other people but it's just hard."

Life has not been kind to Reid.

Statements given to police by his mother, Doris, now living in Taumarunui, tell of Reid's childhood marred by abuse and teasing.

Dyslexic, her son did not start primary school in Tokoroa, where they lived at the time, until he was 6.

He was locked in sports equipment cupboards, he was pushed over - had teeth broken.

At 11, he was sent to a special needs school in Christchurch but the teasing and abuse continued until he left the school at 16.

"He thinks people are looking at him that's why he goes out at night," his mother said.

When he moved to Hamilton his contact with the world consisted of visits and weekly drives in the countryside from community carers.

Mr McDougall goes as far to say he believes Reid was even ill-treated by some within the police.

Reid was viewed as a "pest" by some he says, moved on by officers who had little time or patience to deal with his persistent questions at 1am.

He was the prime suspect for the Te Rapa police station arson after a dispute with a staff member, but there was never enough to link him to the fire.

It was not until the fires at Cambridge High and Forest Lake Primary three years later that police gathered enough evidence to charge him.

In his flat, police found newspaper clippings from the school fires. Photographs he took of the damage at Cambridge High littered his small living room.

Reid is unlikely to spend time in jail, however. His lawyer, Tom Sutcliffe, last night said he would apply to the court for Reid to go into compulsory care under the Intellectual Disability Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation Act 2003.

It is an application supported by police, his former caregivers and the Crown.

He has been remanded to the Henry Bennett Centre for mental health reports and will appear for sentence on April 14.