Benjamin James Long: Six years and two months for deliberate car fires, house Molotov and party collision

Benjamin James Long has been sentenced to immediate imprisonment for a spate of offences over 12 months that saw him set five cars on fire, throw a Molotov cocktail at a house and deliberately run a person over. Long, 22, was sentenced in Albany District Court on February 19 on 11 charges. His charges included five counts of criminal damage by fire, one count of stealing a motor vehicle, one count of doing an act causing bodily harm with intent to harm, and one count of criminal damage or destruction of property. He was also charged with three counts of intent to harm, unlawfully doing an act as a result of which the life, health or safety of a person was or was likely to be endangered. On the morning of June 18, 2021, in Gledhow, Long broke into a Ford Courier belonging to a man dating his ex-girlfriend, left a jerry can filled with fuel on the driver’s seat and lit it on fire. Emergency services put out the fire, which caused $10,000 worth of damage to the uninsured car, which was deemed a write-off, and a loss of $2000 worth of work tools. On the night of January 20, 2022, Long set fire to a Holden Commodore belonging to a man who was dating Long’s friend’s ex-girlfriend by placing a one-litre cordial bottle filled with fuel on the bonnet and setting it alight. A neighbour alerted emergency services and the victim to the fire, which caused $15,000 worth of damage to the uninsured vehicle. On March 20, 2022, Long set fire to a Mazda 323, using a spare set of keys to drive the vehicle from its home in Bayonet Head to Kalgan, where he placed a lit blowtorch next to the fuel line, turned the car on and left the scene. The blaze was extinguished by a nearby neighbour with a water tanker. It caused $1000 worth of damage to the destroyed vehicle as well as destroying its contents worth $2000. On May 6, 2022, Long and an unidentified accomplice threw Molotov cocktails at a Nissan Patrol in Orana, setting fire to the car’s front windscreen and the patio of the home where it was parked. The victims, alerted to the fire by a loud bang, extinguished the flames with a garden hose. The Patrol suffered $12,124.35 in damage, while the front patio was also damaged. On July 25, 2022, Long terrorised a group of people at a 17th birthday party, driving his car into a small crowd and seriously injuring one man. Long drove erratically down a gravel road in Gledhow to his ex-girlfriend’s home, where he knocked over a fence pillar and letterbox. Long then hit a fence post and plastic reflector post while reversing before driving “at high speed” towards a small group of four people who had left the party to observe the damage. One person told the group to “spread out and run” as Long accelerated to an estimated 60km/h and drove into a man who was incapacitated for two months after the incident. District Court Judge Mark Herron said there was a “degree of persistence” in Long’s attempts to strike people with his car and described it as a “terrifying” experience for the victims. “Fortunately, you didn’t kill anyone or cause significant injuries to more than one person,” he said. In his sentencing remarks, Judge Herron said Long believed his actions were “justified” at the time but now acknowledges he could have killed someone. Judge Herron described Long’s offending as “brazen” and “extremely dangerous” and said it was thanks to the quick response of emergency services that Long’s repeated arsons did not spark a bushfire. “You deserve no credit for that, of course,” he said. Long was sentenced to six years and two months immediate imprisonment for all 11 charges, backdated to July 15, 2022, accounting for time spent in custody. He will be eligible for parole after serving four years and two months imprisonment.