A MAN who tried three times to burn a couple's house down at Wallsend and torched their landlady's car had become fixated on the false claim that they had something to do with the sexual abuse of one of his family members.
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Kevin George Fitzpatrick, 37, of Fletcher, appeared in Newcastle Local Court this week via audio visual link from jail and pleaded guilty to three counts of damaging property by fire and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Fitzpatrick had first gone to the house at Wallsend in late May last year and behaved unusually, knocking on the door and then telling a man who answered that he was looking for someone who had "molested" one of his family members.
"I'm tracking and as soon as I get here the tracking goes off," Fitzpatrick told the man, waving a mobile phone around.
The man who answered the door told Fitzpatrick he didn't know what he was talking about and told him to call the police.
Fitzpatrick eventually left and the man and his partner later installed CCTV cameras outside their house.
On June 21, the man and his partner were at home when Fitzpatrick knocked on the door again about 8pm. This time when the man answered, Fitzpatrick immediately punched him in the mouth. He then left.
In the early hours of June 24, Fitzpatrick returned to the house and set the front door alight.
The man and his partner were asleep in bed and were awoken by a "crackling sound". The man went to the front door to discover it was on fire, with flames coming under the door and smoke filling the room. He managed to extinguish the blaze himself, but the door was badly damaged.
As a result of the assault and the arson, the couple moved out of the unit, but their landlady continued to live in the unit behind.
About 3.47am on July 18, Fitzpatrick returned to the house at Wallsend again. CCTV showed him carrying a jerry can, which he poured onto the couple's landlady's car as well as the front door of the unit before setting the fuel alight.
The landlady was asleep when she received a call from a neighbour who told her that her house was on fire. The woman's car was completely destroyed in the fire and the carport was severely damaged. But Fitzpatrick wasn't done.
About 3.54am on July 30, he returned to the house again and set fire to a boarded up window using a jerry can and a lighter.
Fitzpatrick wasn't arrested until August when he went to Waratah police station to ask police to analyse a family member's phone, which he believed had been "hacked".
Fitzpatrick will appear in Newcastle District Court next month to get a sentence date later in the year.
