A Tauranga man has once again refrained from entering a plea for the alleged arson of a building at Tauranga's Historic Village.
Zachariah Phillips appeared in the Tauranga District Court this morning facing a charge of arson in connection to a fire in June that destroyed a building used by Gender Dynamix and RainbowYOUTH.
Phillips did not enter a plea because further disclosure is required for the case to proceed.
The 29-year-old is jointly charged alongside Alexander James Burgess, 33.
The pair were arrested earlier this month, following police investigations into the cause of the fire.
The police summary of facts alleges that Phillips and Burgess set the fire just before midnight on June 15.
CCTV captured the accused's actions which allegedly involved pushing a wheelie bin against the building's wall and using turpentine as an accelerant to create the fire.
'The fire caused significant damage to a building on the property,” says a police spokesperson.
However, no one was in the building at the time of the incident or was injured by the fire according to a Tauranga City Council spokesperson.
"Fire crews were quickly at the scene and prevented the fire from spreading to any other buildings at the village.”
Phillips is due to appear again on August 19 and has been remanded on present conditions of bail until this date.
The co-accused, Burgess pled not guilty at a court appearance earlier in July and elected trial by jury.
Burgess is due to appear in court for a case review hearing on September 28.
2 comments
Justice.
Posted on 29-07-2022 14:14 | By morepork
While all of us have a right to be tried by a jury of our peers for serious offences, it should be taken into account when sentencing. If you did something and know you did it, what would your justification be for pleading not guilty and electing a jury trial? To provide a platform and publicize your beliefs? Hope that some of the jurors will share your persuasion and support you? Whether this crime was motivated by a belief system or whether it was just mischievous, jury trials are a cost on the community and should not be undertaken lightly. Our system (correctly) requires people to be innocent until proven guilty and the only person who could override that is the accused, by pleading guilty, if being guilty is, indeed, the case. Given that no-one was harmed, I'm wondering why jury trial is even an option here.
Hmmm
Posted on 29-07-2022 17:37 | By Let's get real
Wouldn't you think that people aged 29 and 33 would have grown up long ago. But I guess when you look at the gang culture in New Zealand, the chances of some sections of the population to ever grow up is remote to say the least. We've got a culture of sinking to the lowest common denominator rather than striving to rise up to the highest.
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