A TEENAGE Rural Fire Service volunteer who sparked numerous blazes in Hunter bushland over three months last year had an "extremely strong" subjective case that saved him from being sent back to prison on Wednesday, Cessnock Local Court has heard.
Jack Hardidge, 19, was sentenced to an Intensive Correction Order for one week short of two years, and was ordered to complete 250 hours of community service, in relation to 13 blazes throughout the Coalfields between June and August, 2023.
Magistrate Ian Rodgers said he would have imposed a two year sentence, but had subtracted the week Hardidge spent in jail between his arrest and when he was granted bail.
He said Hardidge's crimes - involving the intentional lighting of bushfires - "involve a very significant degree of community concern" and that it was "obviously an option" to send the Aberglasslyn man into custody on Wednesday.
But Magistrate Rodgers said Hardidge's subjective case was "extremely strong" - he was young and had no criminal record, had shown significant insight and remorse since being charged, and was suffering post traumatic stress disorder following the sudden death of his mother at the time he offended.
Both defence and prosecution agreed an Intensive Correction Order was an appropriate sentence in these circumstances.
An Intensive Correction Order is viewed by the courts as a custodial sentence served in the community - they replaced suspended jail terms in NSW in 2018. The state's parole authority deals with breaches, and the offender may be ordered to serve their sentence in prison as a result of breaking their conditions.
Hardidge was involved in igniting 13 fires in Hunter bushland while he was an active member of the Maitland Vale/Luskintyre Rural Fire Service brigade - he attended two of these as a volunteer firefighter.
His defence solicitor told the court on Wednesday Hardidge could not explain why he sparked the blazes but was adamant he was not driven by the prospect of being part of the emergency response.
Hardidge and a group of friends set fire to a pile of rubbish - including tyres, plastic and organic matter - off Government Circuit at Kearsley on June 18, before burning a stack of tyres near an abandoned chimney at Abernethy. They then ignited a partially burnt-out car in scrub about 500m from Kearsley fire station, which spread into nearby bush.
Between then and his arrest on August 30, Hardidge either lit or was with the person who ignited blazes at Weston, Kurri Kurri, Mulbring, Pelaw Main, Bellbird, Greta, Cessnock, Melville, and Aberglasslyn.
He responded with his RFS team to the fires he started at Aberglasslyn on July 30 and Melville on August 16.
The most serious blaze during the period was ignited at the old Greta mines off Hollingshed Street on July 29, which burned five hectares and came within 200 metres of the back of several homes on Talleyrand Circuit, before the wind changed direction.
"Although there was no actual damage to houses ... there was actual damage to bushland," Magistrate Rodgers said on Wednesday.
