Frequent firebug avoids jail, gets three years probation

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This article was published 28/05/2016 (3606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A convicted arsonist and controlled burning crusader who has likened himself to Noah has avoided jail for his latest fire.

Justice Robert Cummings sentenced Philip Andrew Unrau to three years of supervised probation after Unrau started a fire in the RM of Riverside in 2013.

While Crown attorney Deidre Badcock asked for six to seven months in jail followed by three years of probation, Cummings said Unrau’s mental status was a contributing factor in his sentence.

In Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench on Friday, Cummings said Unrau’s unresolved mental health problems made the case unique and mitigated the need for jail time to serve as general deterrence and denunciation of arson within the public.

“I do not accept that someone with the clear mental health difficulties of this accused can learn any lessons by being punished by incarceration,” Cummings said.

At a hearing in March, Badcock argued that a 2009 conviction for arson that netted Unrau five months in jail served as deterrence.

Cummings disagreed, however, and suggested that it was possibly the supervised probation that served as a better deterrent.

“The circumstances here are not the same as those resulting in the conviction,” Cummings said. “In those earlier events, the fire started by Mr. Unrau was very near a hockey rink, a propane tank was nearby and there was a very real and clear danger of significant property loss and injury could occur.”

In his most recent act of arson, Cummings noted there was no immediate threat of danger or destruction of property.

On Aug. 19, 2013, Unrau was seen by witnesses, including the local fire chief, raking dry material toward a fire to make it grow. The patchy, smouldering grass fire burned on land south of the Margaret Cemetery.

He was found with a jerry can and a lighter. In his vehicle was a note that stated: “Start Burning! Or God will.”

Cummings said Unrau isn’t a constant danger to the community, but did deliver a stern warning about the dangers of arson.

“Fire is something that is not easily controlled,” Cummings said. “It can escape an area without warning and cause extensive property damage and loss of life. This principle was not acknowledged by Mr. Unrau in his submission to me. He would do well to learn it.”

The sentence includes conditions for Unrau to undergo a mental health assessment, complete counselling as directed by his probation officer and not set any fire to property other than his own while not possessing any incendiary device unless on his own property.

During trial, both the Crown and defence attorney Ryan Fawcett noted Unrau’s mental health issues; however, there was no report from an expert, nor information from a doctor that describes previous problems.

Unrau spent two months in a mental health facility following the failure of a business and a painful divorce in 1999.

His history with fire stretches back to 2003 and 2004 with convictions under the Wildfires Act. For one of those convictions, Unrau was sentenced to 81 days in jail and put on probation for two years.

In 2009, he was convicted of two counts under the same act, and two counts of arson for which he received five months in jail.

He also received a month in jail for threatening to burn down the Boissevain school.

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