A judge found Mary John Ayuel guilty of arson and sentenced her to 12 months’ jail. Photo: Albert McKnight.
Lighting a fire in a residential building carried a very high risk of injury or death, a judge said after finding a woman guilty of starting a fire outside her neighbour’s Canberra home.
Mary John Ayuel, a 27-year-old from Moncrieff, fought two arson charges when her judge-alone trial began in the ACT Supreme Court before she was acquitted of one and found guilty of the other late last year.
She was cleared of the allegations that she started a fire at a former friend’s home on the night of 10 September 2023 which caused extensive damage to a garage and destroyed a car.
But she was found guilty of lighting a fire outside the door of a neighbour’s unit early the next morning, damaging the front door and surrounding area.
According to a decision published this week, she was convicted and sentenced to 12 months’ jail, backdated to account for time served, which meant she was released from custody in late December 2025.
Acting Justice Patricia Kelly, in an earlier decision, said the evidence in the case was almost wholly circumstantial and no-one saw who lit either of the fires.
CCTV captured a person walking to and away from the back of the former friend’s home before the first fire started. But the judge said the footage was not clear and she could not be sure the person was Ayuel.
“I have concluded that it is highly likely that one person lit both fires and that that person was the accused, nevertheless in the end I have been left with a reasonable doubt about whether it was the accused who lit the first fire,” she said.
The evidence against her was much stronger when it came to the second charge, Acting Justice Kelly said.
She said Ayuel was highly intoxicated that evening when she had an altercation with her neighbour less than one hour before the fire.
When she was arrested, she had a white powdery substance on her hands similar to the substance police saw on the ground straight after the blaze.
“She had the opportunity, the means and the motive and she was arrested at the unit shortly after the fire,” the acting justice said.
“Common sense dictates that it was the accused who lit that second fire.”
Acting Justice Kelly said the lighting of a fire in a residential building carried with it a very high risk of injury or death to the occupants.
She told Ayuel that if she was going to avoid committing future offences every time someone upset her, she needed to develop some self-control and to take steps to address her drug and alcohol addiction.
“I hope you can achieve this; otherwise it seems you are going to be destined to come back into custody again,” she said.
As Ayuel spent 19 months in custody by the time of her sentencing and was handed 12 months’ jail, the judge did not impose a non-parole period so she could leave court after the hearing.
Nope thankfully we have minimum wage and penalty rates. View