Scott McIntosh has admitted to setting fire to his ex's house in February 2021.
For three days, Scott McIntosh has denied being the person who burnt down his ex’s house after earlier setting fire to a BMW belonging to a man he thought she was sleeping with.
A jury heard from the men who had sparked his jealousy and one who witnessed his rage, following his partner Kori Flood’s decision to move on. They also heard the messages he’d sent and the insults the pair had exchanged, as the toxic nature of the relationship was aired before the court.
Then, on Thursday, the 40-year-old changed his mind and admitted to all charges, bringing his trial to an abrupt halt.
His sudden guilty plea came after evidence was heard about the evening of February 5, 2021, which ended with an inferno at Flood’s rental property in Greerton where she lived with her children.
A man who filmed the fire as he hosed the boundary between his parents’ house and Flood’s gave evidence about what he’d seen and heard before being woken by the blaze.
Earlier that evening he’d heard a dispute kicking off outside Flood’s house.
He’d heard banging on doors and windows, and shouting. While he couldn’t remember all the specific insults, he did remember one phrase: “I’ll burn your house down.”
Under cross-examination, McIntosh’s lawyer Tony Rickard-Simms challenged this recollection - given he couldn’t remember the other things said, he couldn’t be sure he’d heard those words.
But the witness was adamant that, given the context, he wasn’t mistaken about the “obscure” phrase.
“It’s not a common sentence I hear,” he said.
Earlier in the trial, Flood gave evidence about her relationship with McIntosh - she said he was controlling and jealous. Messages between the two were produced showing name-calling and insults hurled between the pair over WhatsApp.
But in the background, Flood was moving on in her romantic life - firstly with the flatmate who’d moved in for “safety” after things ended with McIntosh, and later through meeting someone on the same online dating website that had led her to McIntosh.
Joshua Atkins said he’d been messaging with Flood through “Badoo” since November 2020, and they’d had their first proper meet-up in mid-January. By early February they were in the early stages of a relationship, “going on dates, meeting each other’s friends... we had a bit of a connection”.
But he got more than he bargained for when he went to her house after work on February 5, for “munchies and movies”, and instead was faced with dealing with McIntosh, banging on the house with what he thought was a “baseball bat, or some kind of weapon”.
They’d heard, minutes before, what sounded like a loud V8 engine doing skids on the cul-de-sac at the end of Flood’s driveway.
McIntosh now admits he used a white Holden ute, which he was repairing at his mobile mechanic workshop in Parkvale, to drive to the address.
Atkins said they heard the car come up the shared driveway, the driver’s door “flung open”, and footsteps coming up the steps and onto the deck.
Then the banging and shouting had begun. He hadn’t seen who it was but said he became aware it was “Scott”, because of the context of the shouting between Flood and the “aggressive male” outside.
He’d heard the man shouting things like, “b****, liar, who’s in there, tell the truth, f*** you, Kori”.
Atkins called his mate, Hayden Saxton, who was on his way over, and warned him of the “alteration[sic]” taking place.
Saxton gave evidence that when he arrived he saw a “biggish, Caucasian” with “ginger hair”, who’d asked him if he was “with these c****”, as Saxton was making his way to the house.
Saxton said he replied, “What’s it to you”, before McIntosh now admits a dangerous driving charge, owing to an attempt to hit Saxton with his car.
McIntosh left, as did Saxton.
Atkins and Flood decided they would go elsewhere for the night, taking Flood’s two young sons with them, along with a comforter for one of the boys, and a few essentials.
They’d locked up the house and headed for a rural property outside of Tauranga, belonging to family members of Atkins.
During the night, Atkins and Flood woke to see they had numerous retracted messages sent from McIntosh’s Facebook Messenger account to Atkins.
There was also text from a number the Crown said belonged to McIntosh which cited the address they were staying at and then “s*** sorry wrong number”.
When Flood arrived back at her home the next morning, she was met by police officers who said she couldn’t enter, as her house had burnt down overnight.
Flood had called Atkins to tell him, and Atkins said he “pretty much went into a fit” and it had taken him “three hours to go to the house and face it”.
Flood said her relationship with McIntosh had started well, but had become about “power and control”, and she’d ended it because of a threat he allegedly made towards her sister - that he’d beat her with a baseball bat.
He’d later damaged her property in an incident, already been dealt with by the court, where he drove his car into hers, and into the outside of her previous rental property at the Lakes, in Tauranga.
Despite this, they’d maintained a sort of friendship, but Flood said he’d wanted more and she didn’t know how to make him get the message that his feelings were unrequited, and it then reached a point where she didn’t know how to end the friendship.
McIntosh had been repairing her car, and had arranged a trailer to help her move addresses.
However, he’d also reported her to her property manager, introducing himself as her partner, but then dobbing her in for the company he said she was keeping, and the activities he said she was taking part in at the house.
The property manager, who gave evidence in court, had put his report to one side as Flood had already been given notice due to previous anti-social incidents, including when McIntosh had driven into the house.
One of the issues McIntosh had raised was Flood’s flatmate, whom she’d allowed to move in as a form of “safety”.
Tuwhakairiora Callis Te Kawa moved into Flood’s house because he’d needed a new place to live, he said in evidence given at trial.
He and Flood had been “casual friends”, and Flood also wanted him there for the safety of her and her children because things with McIntosh had turned “toxic”.
“Arguments, relationship issues,” Callis Te Kawa said.
After he’d moved in, they’d remained “casual flatmates”, but had “flirtatious” moments when he’d returned from work and they’d had drinks together.
He’d been confronted by McIntosh, underneath the rail bridge in Tauranga’s CBD, after they saw each other on Devonport Rd. Callis Te Kawa said he had admitted to McIntosh that he had slept with Flood.
He had been in Taupō for work on September 16, 2020, when his BMW, which was parked outside Flood’s house in the Lakes, Tauranga, was set on fire.
A fire investigator determined the fire had been started on the front driver’s side tyre, and McIntosh now admits to this arson.
The Crown case was heading into its fourth day of evidence, with fire investigators, detectives and scientific evidence ready to be called, when McIntosh said, through his lawyer, that he wished to change his pleas.
Judge William Lawson called the jury back for the re-arraignment, before dismissing them and thanking them for their time.
McIntosh has been remanded in custody ahead of sentencing in September.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.
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