Michael Lawrence Bunt, 41, represented by barrister Rebecca Suters and solicitor Drew Hamilton, was last week jailed in Newcastle District Court for a maximum of three years after he pleaded guilty to intentionally destroying property by fire in relation to the blaze that destroyed his house in Brooks Street on April 18, 2020.

According to an agreed statement of facts, about eight days before he set fire to the home, Bunt went to the Telarah IGA and had a conversation at the counter with one of the cashiers.

"It's my birthday in 14 days," Bunt told the woman. "If things don't go right I'm going to kill myself and burn my house down."

Bunt then left.

On the day of the fire, another witness said he saw Bunt walking around Telarah. He appeared "agitated and jittery" and was muttering to himself.

The man overheard him say: "It doesn't matter, I'll be dead by the end of the day."

About 10am that day, Bunt set fire to the inside of his house and then left. About 10.30am, police arrived to find the house well alight.

The house, a single-storey fibro dwelling owned by the Department of Housing, would be completely gutted in the blaze.

About 12pm that day, Bunt wandered up to a stranger's house at Rutherford and asked for a lift to Thornton.

During the trip Bunt appeared fidgety and paranoid and muttered a few cryptic things like: "I told them that if they didn't get me out of here, that I would burn the house down. I told them that. So I did it. I burnt it down."

Police went to a home at Thornton and found Bunt sitting out the front.

A police officer asked him if he had set fire to the house and Bunt replied: "F---en oath I did".

He appeared to be hallucinating, police said, and told officers there were a number of dead bodies buried under the house.

He was taken to Maitland Hospital's mental health unit and later charged and refused bail.

He pleaded guilty to lighting the blaze and last week was jailed for a maximum of three years, with a non-parole period of 15 months.

He will be eligible for parole in July.