A man jailed in Australia for causing the death of a woman in a hostel blaze has breached a condition of his deportation order weeks after he was sent back to New Zealand.
Reuben Lambie was jailed by the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 2021 for setting fire to a hostel in Perth, which killed mother-of-three, Tammee Lee Jones, and injured six others.
He originally faced trial for murder but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter, as well as charges relating to his endangering the lives of others.
Lambie, 45, was sent to New Zealand as a 501 deportee, the NZ Department of Corrections confirmed.
The department’s Nelson-Marlborough-West Coast regional general manager, Scott Palmer, told NZME that Lambie returned to New Zealand in March this year and was being managed in the community subject to a returning offender’s order.
He said Corrections applied to the court for several interim special conditions to be imposed before Lambie arrived in New Zealand to address any immediate risk to the community.
Among the list of conditions was one that he not possess, use or consume alcohol or drugs and/or psychoactive substances.
However, Lambie was caught buying alcohol and appeared in the Nelson District Court this week on a Corrections charge of breaching a section of that order. He was sentenced to appear in court if called upon within nine months.
Blaze in packed hostel
Lambie had been living at the Exclusive Backpackers hostel in East Perth, which was used to house people in crisis in temporary accommodation, according to a statement of facts presented at a criminal procedures hearing in early 2021.
The facts said that on the night of the fire on December 12, 2019, the hostel was full.
Each room accommodated multiple people and Lambie had earlier been in disagreement with one of his roommates, the facts said.
Lambie was awake, having consumed methamphetamine earlier in the day, and was still feeling its effects.
Just after midnight, he set fire to a T-shirt and left it smouldering either on or under the spare bed in his upstairs room.
Drank soft drink as hostel burned
Lambie walked out and closed the door, headed downstairs and across the road to a deli where he bought two cans of soft drink, which he drank as the hostel erupted in flames.
His roommate woke up to find the spare bed on fire and flames reaching the ceiling.
He managed to get out and raise the alarm as the fire spread throughout the building.
One of those injured was woken by someone else raising the alarm, by which time her room was already filled with thick dark smoke.
Another was woken by Jones screaming.
She was found in her bedroom unresponsive by firefighters and taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead from the effects of smoke inhalation.
Another of the victims was rescued from inside the building and treated for smoke inhalation.
Others treated for smoke inhalation had escaped through a window to an upstairs balcony from where they were rescued by firefighters.
Lambie was arrested and charged with multiple offences, including murder initially, plus endangering the lives and safety of others, as well as wilfully and unlawfully damaging a building and its contents by fire.
He pleaded not guilty and sought a judge-alone trial, for reasons including he suffered from schizophrenia and psychosis, which made him prone to verbal outbursts, lapses of concentration and mood swings.
The judge was ultimately not satisfied that it was in the interests of justice for Lambie to be tried by a judge alone.
Drug use contributed to criminal action
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported at his sentencing in June 2021 that Lambie was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time, which reduced his moral culpability for the crime even though he had voluntarily used drugs, which had contributed to his actions.
Palmer told NZME that public safety was Corrections’ top priority.
He said anyone subject to a returning offender order was managed in the same way as if they had been released from prison in New Zealand.
“The supervision is similar to parole in that Community Corrections staff manage and ensure the person’s compliance with a number of standard release conditions.”
Not all deportees were subject to Corrections supervisionbut staff were enabled by law to manage and monitor certain people who had been convicted of an offence overseas and who had returned to New Zealand, having served prison time longer than a year.
Probation officers helped people on these orders to comply with the conditions of their sentences or orders.
“Their work often involved assisting with practical support around employment, life skills and accommodation,” Palmer said.
No-alcohol order challenged by 501
The order not to drink alcohol or consume illicit drugs was designed to mitigate the risk of any offending, Corrections told NZME in 2022, when another 501 deportee successfully appealed against the restriction of being able to drink.
That year, a judge in the Whanganui District Court wiped the restriction on Aaron Paul Pryce, who argued he had done his time and should be able to enjoy a beer with his mates.
Pryce, who had lived in Australia for more than 30 years, was deported in 2021 after serving an eight-year sentence for a home invasion.
He argued the no-alcohol restriction imposed by Corrections was unfair, and it had been frustrating not being able to go to a cafe or restaurant with his family.
The judge agreed with his efforts to seek the court’s direction and deleted the restriction.
