{"id":604856,"date":"2026-09-19T01:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/604856\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T01:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:54:15","slug":"mentally-compromised-waikato-woman-set-fire-to-unit-and-fled-as-kids-watched-tv-nearby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/604856\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentally compromised Waikato woman set fire to unit and fled as kids watched TV nearby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defence lawyer Nadine Baier argued strongly against imprisonment. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with a great deal of reluctance that I am going to impose a sentence of imprisonment today,\u201d Judge Marshall told her, before explaining that he would grant her leave to apply for home detention<\/a>, should a bed become available in a rehabilitation facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see prison as a desirable course as far as an ultimate sentence, but I hope it can be a pathway that probation can sit down with you and get you into a suitable property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hirawani looked everywhere but at the judge, before glancing towards her mother in the public gallery and being taken to the cells. <\/p>\n

Court documents state that Hirawani and her cousin went to the victim\u2019s Hamilton<\/a> house to socialise about 10pm on June 29, 2024.<\/p>\n

A couple of hours later, the cousin and the victim decided to visit a friend.<\/p>\n

Hirawani agreed to look after the sleeping children. <\/p>\n

However, early in the morning, Hirawani noticed a petrol container in the laundry with its lid screwed on.<\/p>\n

The container had been used the day before to fill a lawnmower and had been placed in a tub out of reach of the children.<\/p>\n

Around 6am, Hirawani splashed petrol around the laundry, including on the floor and clothes, before lighting it.<\/p>\n

Once the fire began, Hirawani ran past the two children, who were now awake and were a few metres away from the laundry, in the lounge watching TV.<\/p>\n

Hirawani made no attempt to seek help or call 111 before leaving the property.<\/p>\n

The mother returned home six minutes later, found the house ablaze, and rescued her two children.<\/p>\n

Apart from mild smoke inhalation, they were uninjured, but the K\u0101inga Ora house suffered \u201cextensive\u201d damage.<\/p>\n

\u2018I agree, prison is not ideal\u2019<\/p>\n

At the sentencing in Hamilton District Court<\/a>, Judge Marshall explained the case had been drawn out because counsel and probation tried to get Hirawani to engage with them around rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Baier pointed to \u201ccomplexities of this case\u201d, including that Hirawani, who was supported in court by a communications assistant, was \u201cparticularly vulnerable\u201d and had a diminished intellectual capacity.<\/p>\n

Judge Marshall said he agreed with everything Baier said but Hirawani remained untreated and appeared to be on the \u201cstreet using\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe 21-year-old was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf nothing is done by way of intervention, then it\u2019s just going to go from bad to worse, really,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not going to have a future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree, prison is not ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would, however, allow probation to speak with her about residential rehabilitation. <\/p>\n

Baier said intensive supervision would give her something to comply with.<\/p>\n

Hirawani had been turned down by the treatment facility Odyssey House, and then couldn\u2019t make another appointment.<\/p>\n

The judge said: \u201cDo we just let her slide haplessly, rudderless, or put some structure to get her into a residence?\u201d <\/p>\n

Prison was \u201dnever a good option\u201d, he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s the only option to then get a better one\u201d.<\/p>\n

Baier sought a discount of up to 65%, to take into account Hirawani\u2019s lack of criminal history, low IQ, \u201ccomplex\u201d background factors, guilty plea, youth, mental health issues and addiction.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor James Lewis suggested an overall discount of 50% to 55%.<\/p>\n

Judge Marshall said Hirawani was \u201cplaced in a situation that she should never have been placed in\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201d… Hirawani was completely ill-equipped to look after children and it was a circumstance she was placed in not by her choosing but with some reluctance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took an overall starting point of four years and six months\u2019 imprisonment before discounting six months for her reduced capacity. <\/p>\n

The judge then allowed a 60% discount for all other factors, including Hirawani\u2019s drug addiction, before jailing her for 19 months.<\/p>\n

He granted her leave to apply for home detention if a bed became available at a residential rehabilitation facility.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defence lawyer Nadine Baier argued strongly against imprisonment. \u201cIt is with a great deal of reluctance that I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,806,4379,2079,7813,1899,116581,36661,111,43,139,69,1551,61,437,8443,1524,26226,1354],"class_list":["post-604856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-as","tag-compromised","tag-fire","tag-fled","tag-kids","tag-mentally","tag-nearby","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-set","tag-to","tag-tv","tag-unit","tag-waikato","tag-watched","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}