“Burn this h ** anae place”: the horror of “revenge” in the tourist park

The elderly man, enraged by the fact that he had to move from the Tasmanian caravan park, took revenge on the owners by attaching them with a hammer and ax and setting fire to their property.

81-year-old Ian Mackenzie pleaded guilty to burglary, injury and arson under aggravating circumstances after attacking the owners of the Beach Retreat in Vineyard in November 2021.

Defendant, who owned a space in a tourist park but rented land, retaliated if he and other tenants would eventually have to leave because the owners planned to build the land.

Earlier this week, the Tasmanian Supreme Court found that the man’s motivation was “resentment” because he believed he had been offended.

The court said he grabbed his wheelbarrow and packed it with various accelerators, an ax and a hammer and planned to set fire to the tourist park.

Judge Tamara Yago said Mackenzie’s actions were intentional, destructive, revengeful and completely unjustified.

She said the attacker planned to harm the man’s owner and admitted that he intended to “break his skull”.

However, she noted that Mackenzie told police he saw his wife instead and “saw an opportunity”.

Mackenzie lured the man’s wife to the park laundry, then hit her three times on the head and once on the face with a hammer.

As the woman ran screaming for her husband, Mackenzie used an ax to enter the hosts ’house.

When that failed, he returned to the laundry and set it on fire, causing damage of about $ 104,000.

“You thought about wanting to offend (the owner of the man) and teach him not to be so greedy,” Judge said.

“When (the police) asked what you hoped to achieve from the fire, you said ‘burn this damn place.'”

The court said Mackenzie believed he had been promised lifelong housing in the tourist park and he would lose the money he had invested in his department.

It was also said that the defendant had difficulty understanding why he behaved in this way and was otherwise considered a good, genuine, professional and law-abiding person.

“Your actions were completely unjustified and could have caused serious damage,” the judge said.

“There is also no doubt that your behavior has had a serious debilitating effect on both (victims).

“Arson is considered such a heinous crime because the potential damage to both life and property can be catastrophic.

“(Appeal) to violence against both the person and the property to resolve complaints, real or imagined, is never acceptable, and such behavior must be condemned by the courts.”

Mackenzie was sentenced to two years in prison with parole of one year.