Australia arsonist charge with... kiddie porn?

This guy is so fucked. Unless you've been living in a bubble, you've probably heard about the massive wildfires that have sweeping across the Melbourne region of Australia. Over 1,800 homes have been destroyed and nearly 200 have been people killed as a direct result of the fire.

The suspect, whose identity was banned from publication by a magistrate because of the risk of reprisal attacks against him or his family, was formally charged with one count of arson causing death, one of intentionally lighting a wildfire, and one of possessing child pornography, Victoria police said.

Detectives arrested the man Friday and questioned him for several hours in Morwell, 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of the state capital Melbourne, police said. He was charged in a magistrate's court, but did not appear in the courtroom, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

He was ordered held in custody and to undergo psychiatric evaluation, ABC said. He was taken to Melbourne, where another hearing was set for Monday.

[...]

If found guilty, the man faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for the deadly arson charge, and a maximum of 15 years on the second arson charge. Five years in prison is the maximum penalty for possessing child porn.

The arson charges were connected to a fire near the town of Churchill, about 125 miles southeast of Melbourne, that killed at least 21 people. It was one of hundreds of fires that blackened 1,500 square miles of forests and farms in Victoria state.

Experts say arson can be hard to prove. Physical evidence usually goes up in smoke or is taken away by arsonists, said Thomas Fee, a former president of the U.S. International Association of Arson Investigators.

Even more difficult to prove is murder by arson. Wildfires often join one another, making it tough to link a fire set by an arsonist with the blaze that eventually kills people, said Damon Muller, who has researched arsonists for the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The scale of the disaster became clearer Friday, when the state government said it had reached a more thorough tally of homes destroyed and put that number at 1,831 — more than double its earlier figure of 762. The number of people left homeless or who fled their homes and have not returned also rose to 7,000, from 5,000.

Police say they believe at least one other fire — the one that all but destroyed the town of Marysville, about 60 miles north of Melbourne — resulted from foul play.

Marysville is believed to have the biggest toll of any place — up to 100 people killed in a population of 500.
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The man's identity has since been exposed. His name, a photo, and his address has appeared on several Facebook sites created by those outraged by the horrible events.

At least three Facebook groups have been created to name the alleged arsonist, who it has emerged was a volunteer firefighter.

At a Victoria court hearing today, magistrate John Klestadt lifted the suppression order on Brendan Sokaluk's name but ordered that his photograph and address should not be released.

[...]

Sokaluk's lawyer, Helen Spowart, urged the court to continue the suppression of his name amid serious concerns for his safety and that of his family.

"This is an extraordinary case," she said. "The level of emotion and anger and disgust that the alleged offences have aroused in the community is unprecedented ... he remains in risk while in custody."

It was also revealed Sokaluk joined the Churchill brigade of the country fire authority in the late 80s before the service introduced stringent screening and police checks of volunteers.

He left the brigade in the 90s, trying to rejoin twice but being rejected, the Melbourne Age reported.

On his MySpace page, Sokaluk ­describes himself as a "young happy male" who wants to meet a woman and get married.

"My interest are to enjoy life to the fallest [sic]," he writes. He lists "mother earth" as his hero because "without her we all would be dead".

Kieran Walshe, the Victoria deputy police commissioner announced that the death toll from the fires had risen to 189.
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Child porn, of course, is the least of this guy's problems, but I think it gives a bit of insight of how truly fucked in the head this guy most likely is.