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A TEENAGER who set fire to part of a Tamworth high school and left a multi-million-dollar damage bill has been jailed for more than three years.
The now 21-year-old, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time he committed the offences, was sentenced in a Sydney court on Monday afternoon for aggravated breaking-and-entering in company and destroying property by fire in company at Oxley High School, four years ago.
The blaze ripped through the Castlereagh block of the school on March 18, 2012, and a court had earlier heard the fire had left a damage bill around $12 million.
The school block had housed physical education rooms, science labs and an English classroom, and the teenager broke in and stole several items before starting the fire.
After a forensic breakthrough linked his DNA to a pair of rubber gloves recovered from the scene, the now 21-year-old was extradited from Victoria in
May last year, and charged by Oxley detectives.
He has been in juvenile detention since that time and pleaded guilty to the charges in court.
He fronted a sentencing hearing in Tamworth District Court earlier this month, before Judge Donna Woodburne adjourned the case to consider the sentence.
Much of the detail surrounding the offending and the accused’s background was dealt with in a closed court hearing because of the man’s age at the time of the offending.
Judge Woodburne imposed a head sentence of three years and four months backdated to his arrest in May, last year.
He will have to serve a one-year-and- seven month sentence in custody before he’s eligible for parole, but after time served could be released in December, this year.
According to court documents, Judge Woodburne recommended to the minister that the offender be able to serve out his sentence at a juvenile detention centre, where the court was told he was studying.
Under state laws, offenders are not allowed to remain in juvenile detention for sentences that extend beyond the age of 21 years and six months, unless permission is granted by the minister.
In October last year, a magistrate committed the case to the district court and said it was “too serious” to be dealt with in the children’s court.
His solicitor at the time had argued her client had suffered a significant disadvantage growing up, had battled drug addictions and was still a child when the offending occurred.
She told the hearing there was “no professional planning or execution”, and the “intention ... was to steal property, the fire was an afterthought”.
An adult co-accused charged in connection to the break-in and arson has denied the charges against him and will stand trial later this year.