Man set fire to stepson's bed

A stepfather, unhappy about the attention his wife was paying to her intellectually disabled son, set fire to the youth's bedroom, causing $26,000 damage.

In the Christchurch District Court yesterday, Graeme Noel Cook, 44, of Rangiora, was jailed for 18 months after earlier pleading guilty to two charges of arson.

His wife, Sharon Thompson-Cook, told the court how difficult it had been coping with the aftermath of the fire just before Christmas. The family had to move into rental accommodation and she still did not know whether the insurance company would pay for the damage to the house.

Her first husband, Malcolm Thompson, then read a victim impact statement for their son, Tim, 19, who has an intellectual age of nine or 10.

All the boy's possessions were lost in the fire on December 19. He lost toys and treasured things and cried almost every night afterwards.

"He has stuffed up my life. He has taken almost everything away from me. I have nothing left," Tim said in the statement.

Judge Graeme Noble said the couple had argued about the attention Thompson-Cook paid to her son, rather than to her husband.

Cook then went to the son's bedroom, where he used a lighter to set fire to the bed covers. The Fire Service found a second seat of the fire against a wall.

The son was out at the time.

After lighting the fires, Cook rejoined his wife, sitting in the lounge for several minutes until they smelt smoke. There was extensive smoke damage and some structural damage to the house.

Cook said he had no recollection of setting the fires and his lawyer, Bill McMenamin, said Cook was remorseful and wanted to pay reparation if he was able to stay out of prison and continue working.

He had held two jobs, one as a cleaner for a car company and another doing night work, but at the time of the fire was receiving Accident Compensation Corporation payments, and he had been in custody since admitting the two charges of arson.

The judge said it was an outrage that Cook had offended against an intellectually disabled boy in the way that he had.

Cook had been offending for 27 years, and his convictions included violence, dishonesty and alcohol offences. He had been given periodic detention for an arson in 1991.

He jailed Cook for 18 months with special release conditions, but "regrettably" he made no order for reparation. The insurance company and Thompson-Cook would have to make a civil claim against Cook.

The judge said Thompson-Cook was having difficulty persuading the insurance company to pay out.

"I would like to think they would be motivated shortly to get on with that process."

- © Fairfax NZ News