A 29-year-old woman who set fire to their family house in a village in Namosi last year after smoking marijuana has been given a partially suspended sentence by High Court Judge Justice Aruna Aluthge.
She has been sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment and 18 months of which is suspended for 2 years.
This means that Ana Maria Radiniunilele will serve only 6 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of arson.
It was heard in court that the woman admitted to Police that she burnt her father’s blanket and threw it to the mattress knowing that there were gallons of benzene in the sitting room.
She also told Police that after setting fire to the house, she ran outside and checked if the fire had spread all over the house.
The woman also admitted that she was not in the right state of mind because she had smoked marijuana.
The cost of the damage to the house was about $70,000.
Defence lawyer, Lice Manulevu pointed out in mitigation that the woman was extremely remorseful for what she did.
Manulevu also submitted that the woman’s father used to verbally abuse her and on the day of the incident, the woman could not take it anymore and set fire to the house when it was empty.
Radiniunilele was also a first offender.
In his sentence, Justice Aluthge said having considered all the circumstances of this case and the strong mitigating factors, he decided to partially suspend the sentence.
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