Hairs found in a beanie hanging from a tree branch helped lead police to a man who burnt his ex-partner’s house to the ground, killing her pets in the process.
Mitchell Kerfoot avoided jail in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday over the domestic violence attack in the Northern Rivers city of Grafton in 2024.
While sentencing the 26-year-old to a two-year intensive corrections order for the “extremely serious” crime, Judge Robert Newlinds SC said the attack was committed against the backdrop of an unusual and “utterly dysfunctional” relationship.
“It was soon quite clear that the offences occurred in the context of his volatile relationship, fuelled by intense wounded emotion, grievance, immaturity, and his inability to manage himself effectively, poor problem-solving, and amplified by alcohol use,” he said.
“The offending was classically a crime of passion, committed whilst the offender was in a rage state, consequent on his mental health issues.”
Firefighters arrived at about 11pm on the night of the fire to find the house entirely alight. The blaze ravaged the home and killed several trapped cats. There were no people inside at the time.
An ignitable liquid was found to have been poured inside the house.
Kerfoot’s undoing came when investigators linked him to CCTV footage captured from across the street of a grainy figure entering the property’s front gate before flames erupted, as well as the DNA profile of hairs from a beanie found in a nearby tree.
The severity of the fire risked harm to nearby homes, the court heard.
At the time of the attack, Kerfoot was serving a community corrections order for being armed with a weapon to destroy property. He committed that offence while on a conditional release order for stalking.
Leading up to the 2024 arson, the court was told, Kerfoot threatened to damage the victim’s property and take his own life.
“The offending was classically a crime of passion, committed whilst the offender was in a rage state, consequent on his mental health issues.”
Judge Robert Newlinds SC
Kerfoot pleaded not guilty to damaging property by fire (domestic violence) but was found guilty of the offence at a district court trial. He was not charged over the death of the cats.
Other than deploying an accelerant “prior to whatever he did to start the fire,” Newlinds said Kerfoot committed the crime with “breathtaking unsophistication”.
“Almost all of the conduct was captured on CCTV footage, and the offender managed to leave his beanie at the scene of the crime,” he said.
“In my judgment, the combined effect of the offender’s mental health issues is that not only does he find himself in periods of uncontrollable rage, where he does things which undoubtedly he later regrets, but also his emotional maturity is significantly lower than his biological age, which is itself young.”
The judge concluded Kerfoot was not fully aware of his actions’ consequences, due to his serious mental health issues – including an autism diagnosis – which had caused an “extremely difficult life” despite him coming from “a very good family”.
Newlinds said the two residents of the house would be extremely distressed by “the loss of their house ... their lifetime of belongings, and perhaps most significantly, the cats”.
He said he had not lost sight of these serious consequences and accepted the pair would feel aggrieved and consider the sentence too lenient. “In short, whilst I understand that sentencing the offender to full-time custody is something that the victims think will make them feel better, I do not think that it will do the offender nor the community any good at all,” he said.
“To the contrary, I consider the safety of the community will be diminished by the offender serving his sentence in full-time custody.”
Newlinds expressed concern that Kerfoot would suffer extreme hardship in prison, “to the point where I have real concerns as to whether he would survive a period in custody at all”.
The court heard Kerfoot maintained his not guilty plea and therefore showed no remorse or contrition for the offence, which carries a maximum non-parole period of 10 years.
Kerfoot had been on strict bail with home detention and ongoing mental health treatment as he awaited his trial.
Newlinds said that he had complied with bail conditions and appeared to be “stable and improving”.
“If the offender remains within the stable, protective environment of his loving family and continues with his treatment program, then I consider his prospects of being rehabilitated to the extent medically possible are reasonably good,” Newlinds said. “If that happens, then his chances of re-offending are correspondingly reduced”.
A final five-year apprehended violence order (ADVO) was granted on Friday, protecting the two victims.
Kerfoot’s sentence will expire on October 15, 2028.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732). Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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