Nine months in jail for arsonist who burned down Lambton County cottage

A Southwestern Ontario man was sentenced to nine months in jail for burning down a Lake Huron cottage and devastating a Sarnia couple who lost everything in the $730,000 blaze.

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Andrew Fickling’s lawyer, Ben Scholten, argued for house arrest as the Arson case from January 2022 had exceptional circumstances including his client’s mental-health struggles.

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“I’m not satisfied in this case that Mr. Fickling can serve this sentence in the community without causing a significant risk to the community,” Justice Krista Lynn Leszczynski said in a Sarnia courtroom as she returned with her decision.

The Crown’s previous request for between one and two years in jail wasn’t unreasonable, the judge said, but it didn’t take into account all the mitigating factors..

Barry Bentley and Trish Mann-Bentley, a Sarnia couple in their 60s, planned to make the Kettle Point cottage their forever home. They moved most of their personal belongings, including photographs and mementos, there.

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But their plan changed on Jan. 20, 2022.

“This was all taken away from us in a split-second decision,” Mann-Bentley wrote in a letter filed in court. “Everything is gone because of his decisions and actions.”

Fickling, 30, with ties to Goderich and London who was reported as a missing person in the Lambton Shores area.

As the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation fire department fought the blaze that Thursday morning, Fickling, with a black substance smeared on his face, walked up to an Anishinabek police officer at the scene. The officer asked Fickling how they could help him.

“I’m the one that set the fire,” he responded.

Fickling was charged with arson and breaking and entering to commit an unspeakable offense. He pleaded guilty in May to the arson charge — his first criminal conviction — and the second charge was dropped.

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His sentencing was adjourned multiple times to obtain restitution documents and a pre-sentence report focusing on his lifelong mental-health struggles. He also wrote a letter to the court about the difficulty he was having with homelessness and addiction leading up to the fire.

“It is truly a devastating and tragic set of events that led Mr. Fickling to this point,” Leszczynski said.

The judge noted there was a link between his mental-health issues and the crime, which reduced his moral blameworthiness. But there was still a lot of damage and danger posed to neighbors and first responders.

It also had a big impact on the couple, specifically Mann-Bentley, who wrote she’s struggling with depression.

“It was going to be in our family for generations and now it is gone,” she wrote from the cottage. “It has been traumatic and life-altering for ourselves and our children and grandchildren.”

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Mann-Bentley said insurance only covered a fraction of their losses. A $1.2-million civil case was filed at the Sarnia courthouse in November 2022 on behalf of the couple against an insurance company and an insurance agent.

Fickling’s sentence includes a two-year probation order banning him from contacting the couple of having any incendiary devices inside a building.

A 66-year-old Point Edward woman was sentenced to two years’ house arrest and $145,000 in restitution for intentionally starting a fire in a Lambton County-run apartment complex in May 2021 that displaced nine families.

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@ObserverTerry

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