Sydney nursing home arson killer jailed for life
Print Edition
A nurse who set a Sydney nursing home on fire, killing 11 residents and wounding several others, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison, with the judge slamming the man’s actions as “heinous” and “reprehensible.”
Roger Dean, 37, showed no reaction as New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Megan Latham handed him the maximum sentence for setting two fires that engulfed the nursing home in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill on November 18, 2011. Dean pleaded guilty in May to 11 counts of murder and eight counts of grievous bodily harm.
Police said Dean, who started one blaze in a bedroom where two residents were sleeping, lit the fires after discovering he was under police investigation for stealing more than 200 prescription pills from the home. The fire was an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.
Dean told officials that lighting the fire was stupid, blaming his actions on the devil.
“You won’t believe it, but it was like Satan saying to me that it’s the right thing to do,” he said in a videotaped interview with police.
“I love the residents very much and I have a really good rapport with them. So I feel extremely bad and I just feel evil — that I’m just corrupted with evil thoughts that had made me do that.”
At the sentencing hearing, psychiatrist Michael Diamond, who examined Dean’s recorded police interview, said there was no indication he was confused, delusional or withdrawing from medication after the fire.
Yesterday, the judge described Dean’s actions as “heinous,” “atrocious” and “greatly reprehensible.”
“The pain and terror experienced by all of the victims must have been horrific,” Latham said. “For those who were unable to move independently and who faced the prospect of being burned alive or suffocated by smoke, a worse fate is hard to imagine.”
Dean gave an interview to reporters at the nursing home shortly after the fire, painting himself as a heroic rescuer.
“The smoke is overwhelming, but we got a lot of people out so that’s the main thing,” he told a television news crew.
Dozens of the victims’ friends and family members, some wearing pins with their loved ones’ photos, filled the courtroom yesterday.
After the sentence, several of the victims’ loved ones cheered and hugged outside court.
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