Two Shepparton brothers who set a house alight while three people were sleeping inside have been sentenced.
Brothers Liam Mitchell Brown, 27 and Luke Anthony Brown, 34, both of Shepparton, have been sentenced to prison time for the attack.
Liam Brown pleaded guilty in the Koori Court division of the Shepparton County Court to charges of reckless conduct endangering people, arson and making a threat to inflict serious injury, while Luke Brown pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering people.
The brothers went to an Olympic Ave, Shepparton, home where three people were sleeping just after 7.45am on July 5, 2020.
Luke stood with Liam as Liam held a propane blowtorch to a television in a bedroom, attempting to ignite it.
Liam then went to the unoccupied front bedroom of the house and set a fire there.
The house was on fire three minutes later and the occupants were forced to flee, having had nothing in the house to alert them.
The three escaped uninjured, but the house had to be demolished.
In sentencing the two brothers, Judge Arushan Pillay acknowledged they were both affected by alcohol and drugs at the time of the offending, but said the offending was serious and behaviour like this would not be tolerated.
“Sleeping people were put in real danger,” Judge Pillay said.
“Their house burnt down.”
Judge Pillay also noted the brothers’ mother had died just days before the attack, and the intergenerational trauma associated with their upbringing.
Liam Brown was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and will have to serve two years and four months before becoming eligible for parole.
Luke Brown was sentenced to 18 months in prison and will have to serve one year before becoming eligible for parole.