Curtis Milne set fire to Ōtorohanga and Waitomo Motel on Christmas Day, causing $117k damage

A man fuelled by methamphetamine and jealousy called and texted his partner more than 100 times before going to the motel room where she and their baby were staying and setting it on fire.

Twenty-one people were booked into the Ōtorohanga and Waitomo Motel on the morning of Christmas Day, 2024, when Curtis James Milne turned up and set a mattress alight in one of the rooms before fleeing.

If it hadn’t been for the quick actions of the motel manager, who jumped out of bed after hearing the smoke alarms blaring, the damage to both people and the building could have been far worse.

Judge Philip Crayton told Milne, who sat blank-faced throughout his sentencing in the Hamilton District Court last week, that he was lucky not to be facing a murder charge because nobody was hurt in the fire and his partner and baby were not in the unit at the time.

Instead, a jury found the 23-year-old guilty of arson.

“[This was] clearly pre-meditated, clearly focused on damaging property,” Judge Crayton told Crown prosecutor Matthew Temm during discussions.

“It was a mendacious act.

“Here, there plainly was risk to life and he should have known it.”

Milne’s actions have had widespread repercussions, the court heard.

Not only financially, with the damage totalling $117,763.30, but also because the motel managers fled a month later, for fear of further trouble.

This forced the motel owners, Michael and Elaiza Nair, both in their 70s, to give up their jobs to take over running the business.

Woken by alarms, the smell of smoke

Milne’s partner went to the motel on December 23, saying she had nowhere to stay with her 8-month-old baby.

The next day, Milne, who has a previous conviction for arson in similar circumstances, went there and paid for the room.

Through the night and into the early hours of Christmas Day, Milne became paranoid that she was with another man.

He repeatedly called and texted her more than 100 times, most of which went unanswered.

At 4.48am, he texted her threatening to burn the unit down.

At some point between then and 5.20am, he went into the unit, which was unoccupied, and set fire to a mattress.

The motel manager’s quarters were directly above the unit.

At 5.20am, the manager awoke to the sound of smoke alarms and the smell of smoke coming from the unit and went to investigate.

He saw Milne leaving the scene before grabbing a fire extinguisher, and again saw Milne walking away from the motel.

The manager went into the room and saw the bed on fire, and fought the fire with the extinguisher while yelling at everyone to get out of the building.

Meanwhile, at 5.34am, Milne picked up his boss for work about 1.1km away.

He denied lighting the fire, and blamed numerous other people, including his father.

‘You can see how scared they are’

Michael Nair got up and started driving from Palmerston North as soon as he heard about the blaze.

He could tell the managers were still in shock.

“You could see it on their face,” he told NZME.

“You look at somebody, and you can see how scared they are.”

He said the managers had to leave because they were too scared to stay.

“I just couldn’t understand why he [Milne] would do that to us.”

Elaiza Nair said she loved Ōtorohanga, but she remained frightened by what happened.

Even though she wasn’t there that morning, she struggled to sleep at night.

“Even now when I sleep at night, I’m thinking all the time ... how would I run away?

“It was devastating.”

‘Paranoid, obsessive, controlling’

At sentencing, Temm told the judge one of the key issues was Milne’s mental state at the time of the offending.

“Well, paranoid, obsessive, controlling,” the judge replied.

Judge Crayton noted Milne’s letter of remorse, which was the first time he had accepted responsibility for his actions.

However, the judge questioned whether it was true ownership.

He noted Milne did not engage with a psychiatrist or a pre-sentence report writer about what happened. In the letter, he stated that he was “highly intoxicated on drugs at the time”.

“This is someone who was sufficiently organised and presenting as such to be going to work subsequently,” Judge Crayton said.

Temm accepted that while Milne should receive a discount for youth and rehabilitation, he said he should not receive one for remorse.

He was also the father of four children, although not the primary caregiver, and Temm accepted a prison sentence would be difficult for them.

Milne had also completed several courses while on electronically monitored bail for 14 months, including anger management, which Temm hoped would help him regulate his emotions.

“This is a young man who, when he leaves custody, he has some skills, he was working at the time, he will be able to obtain employment in the agricultural sector again and hopefully ... go on to live a pro-social life.”

“That is to be hoped,” the judge replied, “because he now has effectively two convictions for fire setting in similar circumstances.”

Temm noted the statements from the motel managers, and Judge Crayton accepted that the fire had been “life-changing” for them.

“The managers of the property had done nothing but offer kindness and support to both the female and to the defendant.

“It was an extraordinary way to repay them.”

Milne’s counsel, Richard Barnsdale, urged the judge not to issue a minimum non-parole period as sought by the Crown.

Given the work his client had done while on bail in Dargaville, he hoped any prison term would not “dampen” his client’s enthusiasm to continue that work upon release.

He’d also written the remorse letter, Barnsdale pointed out.

“He admits his offending,” the judge replied.

“It’s a little sequitous, but he does so, belatedly.”

Judge Crayton said that right from the moment police began investigating, Milne “did everything you could to avoid taking responsibility”.

“No matter how strong the evidence was, you at no stage, until the letter you wrote to me in the lead-up to this, [gave] even a passing acknowledgement that you were responsible.

“It’s important to note that not only did you seek to avoid, deflect and blame others, but you sought to downplay the level of damage.”

Milne and his partner were in a “dysfunctional relationship ... interspersed with violence, being verbal or physical”.

The judge said the manager fed his partner and baby, got clothes for them, drove them to him, and put them in a motel on trust that they would be paid.

“She didn’t dismiss you.

“Irrespective of the fact that this was her Christmas Eve.

“And what was your response?

“Your response was one that can only have been driven by control, obsession, and paranoia.

“Just because she and the baby were not in the room, you believed, utterly incorrectly, that somehow that meant that she was cheating.”

So Milne threatened to do what he did, “and that was to burn”, the judge said.

He said it was “astonishingly fortunate” that the motel manager had the “quickness of thought and courage to act”.

“His bravery undoubtedly resulted in an outcome which does not mean that you are facing life imprisonment.”

‘They lost everything’

It was supposed to have been a special Christmas Day for the victims, who moved to New Zealand full of hope for their business venture.

“Effectively, they lost everything by your selfish and self-consumed acts,” the judge said.

“The family, and other motel guests, had to be relocated, and they had their Christmas upended by you.”

Judge Crayton also acknowledged the harm caused to the Nairs.

After taking a starting point of five years’ imprisonment and allowing for various discounts, he jailed Milne for three years, eight months and two weeks.

Judge Crayton also ordered Milne to pay the motel’s $1000 insurance excess.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.