In a chilling realization of a chilling threat, a family home met a fiery end after a disgruntled relation followed through on his harrowing promise. Quentin Kerehi Beverley Smyth had earlier issued a grim forewarning to his brother, intimating his intention to set their family house ablaze when their mother would be away, all over an issue of the house keys proceedings.
Upon arriving home in Lyon St, Hamilton in the early hours of December 13th last year, Smyth’s mother was aghast to find her son’s threat was not hollow. In a vindictive rage, Smyth had doused the kitchen and hallway with accelerant, leaving the residence, valued between $575,000 and $665,000, a condemned smoldering ruin.
After facing charges of arson in the Hamilton District Court, a protection order was swiftly issued against Smyth, initiated by his own mother. The day before the incident, Smyth, after a drinking spree with friends ended up in a fight. When his mother called, offering to pick him up, he unleashed a verbal tirade of threats at her, the depth of which provoked her into preemptively evacuating everyone from their home.
Things escalated when Smyth arrived at the property, a physical altercation with his brother ensuing. His brother escorted away by their mother to their father’s place; in a final chilling assertion, Smyth turned to him to ominously relay to his mother that their house would be aflame upon her return.
Denying his involvement in the fire and any threats against his mother despite overpowering evidence, Smyth was taken into custody. The property’s insurance payout to its owners, who resided at a distance in Australia, covered an amount of $551,000 for the property damages albeit excluding the cost for demolition and removal. In the wake of the destruction, Smyth’s family found themselves devoid of their belongings, a harsh reality of their lack of insurance.
Smyth’s attorney, Kerry Hadaway, highlighted his client’s remorse and regret. A letter from Smyth to his mother, wishing for her forgiveness, was read out in court wherein he stated his regret for his misdeeds and his deep anguish for the pain caused. Dovetailing into Smyth’s remorse and previous good behaviour, Hadaway highlighted Smyth’s intellectual disability and his availability of up to $10,000 for reparation upon his release from penitentiary.
In acknowledgement of these variables, Judge Glen Marshall reduced his initial sentence to a two-year jail term, with an order for Smyth to pay an $8000 reparation within a month of release. A mandatory protection order for his mother was also granted. The full magnitude of this incident serves as a bleak reminder of destructive choices and their far-reaching consequences.
