A NAKED teen high on LSD who accidentally set fire to his Albury flat has been sharply rebuked for being aggressive to his rescuers.
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Magistrate Tony Murray praised the pair’s actions in getting James McAllister-Barnard to safety.
“Quite clearly without the intervention of those people I doubt you’d be alive today,” he told him during a sentence hearing in Albury Local Court.
But Mr Murray said the 19-year-old’s aggressive behaviour, no doubt caused by him taking the six 1mm strips of an LSD tab, “was disgraceful. This is a really serious matter.”
Mr Murray said that while the New Year’s Day fire, as earlier submitted by defence solicitor Mark Cronin, was not deliberately lit, he criticised the teen’s feeble attempts to put out the blaze.
McAllister-Barnard’s actions in throwing clothes and books into a bin where the fire started from him flicking cigarette ash fanned the flames.
The fire spread to his bedroom, but instead of throwing water onto the flames he turned on the shower.
McAllister-Barnard struggled with the off-duty Victorian policeman who simply wanted to help him escape.
The rescuer even put a cloth over the naked teen “to preserve his dignity”.
McAllister-Barnard pleaded guilty to damage property by fire or explosion to a value greater than $15,000 and to self-administer or attempt to self-administer a prohibited drug.
Mr Cronin said it had not been suggested “in any way” that it was a deliberate action on McAllister-Barnard’s part to start the fire.
He said McAllister-Barnard was “extremely thankful” for his rescuers’ efforts.
And Mr Cronin said McAllister-Barnard did not shy away from the $135,610 in compensation that no doubt would be sought by insurers for the flat above Locky's Countryside Meats in Macaulay Street.
“He says I’m just going to be paying that for a long time, but I will be paying it.”
Mr Cronin submitted that McAllister-Barnard was suitable for a community-based order, given his remorse and his lack of convictions.
But Mr Murray favoured jail and so ordered his assessment for an intensive corrections order.
McAllister-Barnard will be sentenced on June 30. He was convicted and fined $200 on the drug matter.