A man lit nine fires in bushland at a popular Cobram tourist spot, and then threatened to kill a neighbour and burn their house down when they spotted him.
John Binotto, 45, from Cobram, pleaded guilty in Shepparton County Court to recklessly causing a bushfire, making threats to kill and making threats to damage property.
Prosecutor Andrew Moore told the court Binotto lit nine fires in bushland at Thompson’s Beach in Cobram on July 22 last year.
The court heard Binotto’s neighbours and two other people went to Thompson’s Beach about 9.30pm and saw two lots of flames in the bush and Binotto walking away from the flames and towards their car.
They called 000 and as they drove away, saw more fires, with flames going between three and five metres high up a tree in one instance.
Binotto then ran towards their car yelling “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to burn your house down”, Mr Moore said.
The prosecutor told the court Binotto was “holding an object … that was 50 to 60cm long” in one hand and waving it towards their car.
The court also heard Binotto was spotted by other people in the area, including one who said he saw flames that were 6m high, and others who said Binotto told them he was “fishing” when they asked him what he was doing while holding branches over flames.
When Binotto’s neighbours arrived home at 10pm, Binotto was standing on the nature strip yelling.
He told police he had been fishing that night, and denied making any threats or lighting fires, Mr Moore said.
He also told police other local residents had been harassing him.
The court heard a total of nine fires were lit in a 48 by 20sqm area of bush.
Mr Moore said Binotto could be considered as reckless in the lighting of the fires, given the type of vegetation in the area, the close proximity of the fires to each other and the fact the fire brigade had to attend.
“Even though it was winter and some of the fires have gone out, it is potentially very dangerous conduct,” Mr Moore said.
“People were in the vicinity.
“(And) the threat to kill was a serious threat.”
The prosecutor said Binotto had “lengthy” prior convictions for violence, damaging property and drug use.
He was also on a community corrections order at the time of lighting the fires.
While he conceded that the offences were “inherently serious”, Binotto’s barrister Christin Tom told the court the fires were “not a grave example of causing a bushfire”.
He said the CFA investigation found that each of the fires was 1sqm or less in size.
He also said the fires were not lit in a fire danger period, and were instead in the middle of winter, at night.
Mr Tom said the threats to kill and damage property were “mid-range offences”.
He told the court in the lead-up to these offences his client had been abusing alcohol and methamphetamines, and had concerns with some of his other neighbours.
“He had a chaotic lifestyle. He was using drugs and having disputes with the neighbours,” Mr Tom said.
The defence counsel also said his client had a mental illness and had not been medicated for it before; however, he was now receiving medication for it in prison while waiting for his case to finalise.
The court also heard Binotto had previously been given 11 community corrections orders and had completed six of them but had breached the past five.
Judge John Kelly ordered Binotto be assessed for a community corrections order with a justice plan, before deciding on sentence.
However, he added that having the assessment done was not an indication of how he would sentence Binotto.
Binotto continued to be remanded in custody and will next face court in November.