A Tasmanian woman who set fire to her own public housing home has been jailed, with a judge warning the destruction of scarce community housing is a serious offence.
Dakota Montana Pearce-Riley, 30, was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Thursday after pleading guilty to arson.
She was sentenced to 18 months in prison, backdated to January 20, 2026, with nine months suspended on strict conditions.
The court heard Pearce-Riley had rented the property in the Launceston suburb of Youngtown from Homes Tasmania for about three years.
Just before 8am on November 1, 2025, she set fire to a mattress in a rear bedroom.
She had moved some of her belongings into the carport beforehand.
A neighbour raised the alarm and the Tasmania Fire Service brought the blaze under control quickly.
The rear of the house was extensively damaged, while the rest of the property was damaged by smoke and water. It remains uninhabitable.
Justice Pearce said Pearce-Riley had been unable to explain why she lit the fire.
“You had nothing to gain and were not trying to engineer a move from your home,” he said.
“You can only attribute it to your disordered thinking at the time, but there is no evidence of any causative link between a mental health condition and the crime.”
Justice Pearce said the fire created risks beyond damage to the house itself.
“… Such fires inevitably pose a risk to other property and persons, including neighbours and the Tasmania Fire Service officers who were sent to attend to it,” he said.
He said the house was part of “a scarce and valuable public resource” and the cost of repairs would be borne by the wider community.
The court heard Pearce-Riley had experienced significant hardship, including childhood abuse by her father and a long-term methylamphetamine addiction.
Her four children were removed from her care in early 2024.
Pearce-Riley has been in custody since January and has remained drug-free, the court heard. She is also seeking a place in residential rehabilitation.
Upon her release, she must submit to supervision, undergo drug treatment and complete the EQUIPS addiction program.
A compensation order was made in favour of Homes Tasmania, with the final amount to be determined at a later date.
