Young mum pleads guilty to arson after Top End supermarket fire

Josephine Deegan, 19, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to arson and property damage after admitting to setting fire to cardboard boxes in the Coles supermarket loading bay in the early hours of December 9.The court heard a good Samaritan moved some wooden pallets away from the fire to stop it spreading and police arrested Deegan in the Cazaly’s carpark a short time later.In sentencing, Justice John Burns said Deegan had lit the fire “out of frustration and anger” following “family stresses which led to you becoming extremely intoxicated”.“The damage was not as significant as it could have been due to the intervention of the passer-by but at the same time, the damage was not insignificant,” he said.“The setting of a fire in this way posed a potential threat to those in the building and those who may have had to fight the fire if it had been such as to get out of control.”Justice Burns handed Deegan a nine month sentence, suspended after three days served on remand, and ordered her to perform 50 hours of community work over the next six months.“That’s a relatively low number of hours but in setting that I have taken into account that you are going to be very much occupied in the care of your son during that period,” he said.“I hope that this has taught you that resorting to the use of alcohol when you come up against difficulties or frustrations in your life doesn’t make things better.“It’s only made things worse for you on this occasion and that indeed is almost inevitably what happens when people resort to alcohol in order to deal with their life problems.”

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October 27, 2021
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Josephine Deegan, 19, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to arson and property damage after admitting to setting fire to cardboard boxes in the Coles supermarket loading bay in the early hours of December 9.The court heard a good Samaritan moved some wooden pallets away from the fire to stop it spreading and police arrested Deegan in the Cazaly’s carpark a short time later.In sentencing, Justice John Burns said Deegan had lit the fire “out of frustration and anger” following “family stresses which led to you becoming extremely intoxicated”.“The damage was not as significant as it could have been due to the intervention of the passer-by but at the same time, the damage was not insignificant,” he said.“The setting of a fire in this way posed a potential threat to those in the building and those who may have had to fight the fire if it had been such as to get out of control.”Justice Burns handed Deegan a nine month sentence, suspended after three days served on remand, and ordered her to perform 50 hours of community work over the next six months.“That’s a relatively low number of hours but in setting that I have taken into account that you are going to be very much occupied in the care of your son during that period,” he said.“I hope that this has taught you that resorting to the use of alcohol when you come up against difficulties or frustrations in your life doesn’t make things better.“It’s only made things worse for you on this occasion and that indeed is almost inevitably what happens when people resort to alcohol in order to deal with their life problems.”