Bin fires get more jail for serial arsonist

A serial arsonist who had spent 18 months in jail on remand is set to spend at least another three months behind bars after setting eight bins on fire in Broome’s CBD one morning. Robin Yamalulu was sentenced by the Supreme Court for the series of blazes in Chinatown last year, which followed a similar incident in 2018 when he was handed a suspended jail term for setting fire to bins outside the Roebuck Bay Hotel and Paspaley Plaza taxi rank. The court heard on October 13 Yamalulu walked around Napier Terrace at 4.30am last March and set fire to wheelie bins with a cigarette lighter. He first set fire to two bins outside the Broome Visitor Centre, followed by a further four bins that were on a footpath near Male Oval, before walking to Short Street, where he lit up another bin near the Paspaley Plaza Shopping Centre’s rear carpark and another that was outside Runway Bar. The court heard an off-duty police officer, who was on his way home after being on night shift, saw Yamalulu setting fire to the last bin and detained him until police arrested him. Despite pleading guilty in Broome Magistrate’s Court in July last year, upon being put before the Supreme Court in November, Yamalulu’s mental capacity was called into question and the matter was put off for psychological testing. The report stated Yamalulu had a history of damaging property by lighting fires which dated back to 2010. In sentencing, Justice Bruno Fiannaca found that while bins were not particularly valuable items, they were public property, that Yamalulu’s conduct caused inconvenience, and the Shire of Broome had to spend up to $900 replacing them. It was found Yamalulu had been on a conditionally suspended imprisonment order, requiring him to attend alcohol counselling, for less than two weeks after being sentenced by Justice Fiannaca in February last year. He told Yamalulu the court gave him “the opportunity to change and placed trust” in him to not commit similar offences, but that trust was broken. Justice Fiannaca triggered the suspended 12-month jail term and backdated it to April 2019 before further sentencing Yamalulu to 18 months, backdated to April 2020. Although Yamalulu would be eligible for parole with supervision in January, he appeared in Broome Magistrate’s Court on October 19 charged with three further counts of criminal damage by fire, which were adjourned for legal advice. He is next due to appear in Broome Magistrate’s Court on November 16.