A Dunedin couple has been sentenced for setting multiple fires across the city over several days last November.
Christopher Stephen Tilby, 50, and Kelly Leigh Kilpatrick, 37, appeared in Dunedin District Court having pleaded guilty to the charges. Tilby received 3 years' imprisonment, while Kilpatrick was sentenced to 6 months' community detention, 300 hours' community work and 12 months' supervision.
The offending began in the early hours of 14 November 2025 when the pair and a third man set fire to the abandoned Glamis Hospital on Montpellier Street. The third man used accelerant and a lighter to ignite discarded items at the derelict hospital. Within an hour, a portable toilet encircled by thick vegetation was ignited at a secluded layby in Ocean Grove.
On 17 November 2025, the group set fire to an abandoned brick building behind commercial premises on Harrow Street. The blaze caused structural damage so extensive that the property was expected to be demolished. Less than an hour later, they targeted an unoccupied house on Lees Street, with Tilby and the other man using molotov cocktails. One molotov cocktail struck the exterior without causing damage, but a second crashed through a bedroom window and ignited a blaze. People were living in buildings next to the targeted house at the time. The night ended with the men setting fire to a heavily wooded stretch on Brighton Road.
Defence counsel Anne Stevens KC argued Kilpatrick had been coerced by Tilby and possessed knowledge but not agency. Tilby and Kilpatrick were in a relationship at the time, with Kilpatrick serving as driver. Stevens told the court Kilpatrick "doesn't have a criminal mindset . . . this is an aberration and can be explained".
Judge Sellars said Kilpatrick had left her children unattended during the nights of the arson spree, but indicated this was a consequence of Tilby's dominance over her rather than a failure in her parenting. Judge Sellars declined to disqualify Kilpatrick from driving, saying it would make fulfilling her parental responsibilities almost impossible.
Tilby was also convicted of assaulting a young boy in connection with an incident at a public swimming pool in Invercargill. The other man allegedly involved in the arsons will appear in court this month.