In the District Court, the former principal of a remote WA school has denied setting fire to it to cover his tracks of frauds and thefts. Source: Leader
A FORMER School of the Air principal has been cleared of lighting a fire at the school but found guilty of stealing as a servant.
John Michael McHale, 50, was today found not guilty of unlawful damage by fire over a blaze that demolished the School of the Air in Meekatharra on September 27, 2006.
But he was found guilty of stealing as a servant after it was discovered he still had school equipment at his home, more than a year after he was suspended. He had previously pled guilty to 266 other charges of theft and fraud, including using the Meekatharra School of the Air's credit card to buy groceries.
The District Court jury will continue deliberating tomorrow on two other unlawful damage by fire charges, relating to a second fire at the Meekatharra campus in October 2006 and another in Geraldton in May 2008.
Judge Patrick O'Neal has directed the jury it can return with a majority of 10 jurors agreeing on a verdict for those remaining charges.
The prosecution previously alleged McHale deliberately lit the fires to destroy evidence of his fraud.
Yesterday, McHale told the District Court in Perth he had nothing to do with two blazes at the Meekatharra school and a third fire at the Geraldton campus.
He said he only learnt of the emergency when a man - whose identity he could not recall - phoned him.
McHale said he arrived at the school about 20 minutes later to find firefighters on the scene.
But the prosecution claims he was already there. It says he had smashed some windows with rocks and left a box of tissues on a chair inside one of the rooms as a second ignition point, but was interrupted by the firefighters.
The court was told he approached them and blamed the damage on children.
McHale has denied that, saying he did not return to the school after asbestos was found during the first fire.
"I didn't set any fire anywhere at any time,'' he said.
McHale was also accused of refusing access to a firefighter, telling him: "It's the government's. Let it burn''.
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