The accused was charged with arson for deliberately setting fires at his family home on December 25, 2014, and with breaching a probation order.
The Crown's case relied on circumstantial evidence including the accused's bizarre destructive behavior earlier that morning, his presence in the vicinity of the home shortly before the fire was discovered, his possession of a lighter, and the absence of signs of forced entry.
The defense argued that the circumstantial evidence could not exclude the reasonable possibility that an intruder had set the fires.
The court found that the accused's pattern of destructive conduct throughout the day, combined with the unlikelihood of a random arsonist targeting the home on Christmas Day, established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on both counts.
