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<\/p>\nOn the night she was meant to sign off on selling the home she had once shared with her long-term partner, a drunk and high mother set fire to a caravan parked in the driveway.<\/p>\n
Her two teenage children were inside the house.<\/p>\n
She was later found by a police helicopter with burns up both her legs, and told officers she could “set fire to whatever she wants”.<\/p>\n
Saphron Amber Henderson, 46, was sentenced in Wait\u0101kere District Court today for the West Auckland arson in March that caused about $107,000 in property damage.<\/p>\n
She was also sentenced for charges relating to her driving off the road, flipping her car and crawling out of the wreckage before escaping on foot last December.<\/p>\n
The agreed summary of facts said that after 7pm on 23 March, Henderson doused the caravan in Massey, West Auckland, in petrol and set it alight.<\/p>\n
It was soon engulfed in flames and destroyed.<\/p>\n
A number of neighbours reported the fire to police, the facts said, and a Herald reporter on the scene at the time said the fire’s black smoke could be seen as far as Henderson.<\/p>\n
Police told the Herald then that a witness had seen a woman walking towards the property with a jerry can moments before the fire.<\/p>\n
When Henderson was found by police, she was taken to hospital and unable to give a statement but claimed she “can set fire to whatever she wants”, the summary of facts said.<\/p>\n
Three months earlier, the woman was driving in Swanson, West Auckland, when she drove off the side of the road and flipped her car.<\/p>\n
She managed to get out of the car, which was on its side, and left the crash on foot, the summary of facts said.<\/p>\n
She was found by police a 30-minute walk up the road and showed signs she had been drinking. She refused to have her blood tested for alcohol.<\/p>\n
While being searched at the Henderson Police station she kicked a female police officer in the groin.<\/p>\n
In court, Judge Maria Pecotic read out the victim impact statement of Henderson’s ex-husband.<\/p>\n
On the night of the arson, the estranged couple were meant to sign papers for the sale of the house, which didn’t go through because of the fire, his statement said.<\/p>\n
He also wasn’t able to claim insurance as Henderson had deliberately set fire to the property, some of which they jointly owned.<\/p>\n
His statement said he couldn’t afford to fix, clean or repair the damage, which affected him mentally.<\/p>\n
The caravan belonged to another ex-partner and his son’s car had also been “lost” in the fire.<\/p>\n
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The caravan and carport in Massey, West Auckland, engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n
Supplied \/ Open Justice<\/p>\n
The judge also read out the impact statement of the woman who owned the caravan, which said the impact of the fire had been “devastating”.<\/p>\n
The woman was at a particularly low point in her life at the time of the blaze, the statement said, and Henderson’s actions showed a lack of “empathy and compassion” towards her.<\/p>\n
She said she was frightened, scared for her life and had to be put into emergency housing, having lost about $80,000 worth of property.<\/p>\n
The judge said Henderson had been in a relationship with her former partner for 16 years.<\/p>\n
In a Corrections report, the woman admitted to having an alcohol addiction that has lasted 31 years, starting when she was 15-years-old.<\/p>\n
Being remanded in custody in March was her first time being sober since then, the report said.<\/p>\n
There was also an alcohol and drug report before the court that said as a child, Henderson had a fractured relationship with her father, an alcoholic, reconnecting with him when she was 13.<\/p>\n
She then had an addiction to methamphetamine that spanned her time overseas and when she moved back to New Zealand.<\/p>\n
At some point, there was a parenting order made in favour of her former partner and the woman who owned the caravan, the report said.<\/p>\n
Henderson, while consuming a large amount of alcohol and cannabis, had been “ruminating” on “past grievances” related to that order when she set fire to the caravan, the court heard.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Fire crews tending to the Massey blaze in March this year.<\/p>\n
Supplied \/ Open Justice<\/p>\n
Crown lawyer Hugo Wagner-Hiliau said the damage to the caravan, carport and nearby car and trailer amounted to about $107,000.<\/p>\n
In sentencing the woman, Judge Pecotic noted the fire was highly premeditated.<\/p>\n
This was shown, she said, by witness reports recording that Henderson had gone to a nearby petrol station to get a “billy can” of petrol.<\/p>\n
Members of the public at the petrol station said the woman was announcing proudly what she was planning to do, the judge said.<\/p>\n
This was cemented by what Henderson told police upon arrest, the judge said, showing a “clear intent” to start the fire.<\/p>\n
The caravan was destroyed “beyond recognition”, and with the carport completely destroyed, the risk of harm was high.<\/p>\n
The fire was when people were likely to be at home and it was lucky her children weren’t asleep at the time, she said.<\/p>\n
Judge Pecotic sentenced the woman to 28 months in prison for arson.<\/p>\n
She was convicted and discharged for refusing to give blood, assault and careless driving in December, but was disqualified from driving for 12 months and a day.<\/p>\n
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