Albany man Wade Timmer who deliberately set his three brothers’ vehicles on fire jailed in District Court

An Albany man who set his three brothers’ cars and a boat on fire in an arson spree while he was experiencing psychotic hallucinations has been jailed. Wade Timmer, 32, was jailed for three years after being convicted on three charges of criminal damage by fire in Albany District Court last Monday. On August 4 last year, Timmer went on a rampage around Albany torching his three brothers’ vehicles, causing more than $185,000 damage, after smoking cannabis and experiencing hallucinations. State prosecutor Paul Dixon said Timmer experienced “psychotically-driven visual and auditory hallucinations” which caused him to become angry at his brothers. The court was told Timmer drove to a Caltex Service Station and was captured on CCTV filling up three bottles with petrol. He then drove to a carpark near his brother’s house in Mt Melville and walked to the home, where he was asleep inside with his wife. Timmer poured one of the bottles of petrol over his brother’s ute, lit it on fire using a lighter, left the property and returned to his car. The ute, valued at about $50,000, was destroyed. Timmer then drove to another brother’s home in Gledhow where he lived with their parents. Mr Dixon told the court that Timmer parked 50m away so he would not be seen or activate a motion-sensor light on the house. Timmer walked on to the property and poured petrol on to his brother’s panel van, set it alight and left. The fire destroyed the van, valued at $10,100, and caused significant damage to the carport it was parked under. No one was home at the time. Timmer drove to another brother’s house in McKail, where he was at home with his family. He again parked a distance away from the house and walked to the front yard where he poured petrol over his brother’s ute and 6m boat, setting them on fire with a lighter. Both the ute and boat were also destroyed, causing an estimated $125,500 in damage. Timmer was apprehended by police a short time later and taken to Albany Police Station where he made full admissions to purchasing the petrol to burn the vehicles. Mr Dixon said Timmer told police at the time that he was “angered by the messages and spirits sent to his head by his brothers”. When police asked him if starting the fires was the right or wrong thing to do, he told them it was wrong, and later admitted: “I know it was wrong”. Legal Aid duty lawyer Graeme Payne told the court Timmer was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was in his 20s, had been admitted to mental health wards several times since 2016 and had been treated at a facility three weeks before his offending. After receiving mental health treatment while in custody, Timmer was fit to enter a guilty plea on June 9. “He was psychotic, delusional, isolated and withdrawn, under the influence of substances, resentful and angry with his brothers, who had become part of his delusional thinking,” Mr Payne said. Mr Dixon said the planned crimes posed “potential risk to members of the community”. “It involved going to the service station to fill up three separate containers of the fuel used to commit these offences, and it also used, in one instance, his actions in avoiding motion-activated floodlights,” he said. Judge John Staude described the incident as “a very deliberate, purposeful and premeditated series of acts” which made the case “particularly serious”. “You’ve used an accelerant,” Judge Staude said. “And you’ve gone from one place to the other, ensuring that you weren’t seen, such that you weren’t apprehended until you had committed each of the three offences.” He sentenced Timmer to three years in prison, backdated to August 4, 2021. Judge Staude also imposed a permanent family violence restraining order, preventing him contacting one of his brothers.