Three in court over arson attack on $100,000 haystack on Home Services

Jan

Three in court over arson attack on $100,000 haystack

posted by admin in Window Cleaning

Corey Daniel Stopforth, 19, Phillip James Morley, 21, and Paul Robert Harrod, 19, entered no plea in Palmerston North District Court yesterday afternoon. All three are charged with unlawfully entering the Oroua Road property and setting fire to the three-storey-high stack of bales early on Saturday morning. Stopforth, unemployed, and Morley, an electrician, both of Palmerston North, are also charged with torching a car under the Ashhurst Bridge several hours earlier on Friday evening. Police did not oppose bail on the condition each of the defendants adhered to a strict 7pm-7am curfew and they did not associate with each other. Interim name suppression was denied and the trio were remanded to reappear for a pre-depositions hearing on October 23. Detective Glenda Barnaby said the alleged offenders had co-operated with police and further charges relating to other fires lit on Friday night would likely be laid in the coming days. “The public have been really good in assisting us with our investigation and the Fire Service have also been brilliant, which is why we’ve been able to track down these guys so quickly,” she said. Andy Dahl, who owned the stack of bales, estimated the straw was worth about $100,000. He was still working through the insurance details. The weekend blaze was the second time in eight years he had lost a bale stack to fire. Mr Dahl said firefighters made life much easier for him by letting the blaze burn itself out. Had they doused the flames, he would have been left to clean up a “giant soggy mess”, he said. The majority of the burnt straw was cleared by Sunday afternoon, with only a small pile marking the site yesterday. Police are still interested in sightings of two vehicles between 8pm on Friday and 2.30am on Saturday morning in the Ashhurst and Mt Stewart areas. They are a red Mazda Familia with a “for sale” sign in the back window, and a green Toyota Starlet.