Tsai-Wei Hung: Woman pleads guilty to arson charges after firebombing campaign against former housemates, landlord

A Melbourne woman terrorized her former flatmates and landlord for months after being evicted, firebombing their homes and cars, a court has heard.

Tsai-Wei Hung, 32, appeared in the Victorian County Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to a string of charges including arson, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, robbery and dangerous driving.

Prosecutor David Gray, for the Crown, said Hung became enraged after he was evicted from a share house in Clyde North on March 10 last year.

After police were called, he packed his bags and left without incident, but Mr Gray said Hung returned an hour and a half later at 5pm looking “extremely angry and aggressive”.

Hung egged the garage’s roller door and was caught speeding, chasing former landlord Lin Zhang and roommate Chung-Ting Yuan in his Toyota Camry, according to cellphone footage.

After the couple took shelter inside, Hung slammed the garage door twice, causing significant structural damage and damaging three vehicles inside.

He returned the next day and broke through the damaged revolving door, smashing the cars inside and fleeing when spotted.

Hung voluntarily went to the police station later the same day, where he was arrested, charged and released on bail.

Mr Gray said Hung told police he “just wanted to scare them”.

Three months later, Hung returned to his home in Clyde North on June 10, where he doused the cars of two of his former housemates in petrol and set them on fire at around 2.50am.

Less than 10 minutes later, the residents were awakened by Hung setting fire to the front door.

“The defendant threw a plastic bottle containing petrol at the front door and then used matches to light a fire at the front entrance of the house,” Mr Gray said.

The next day, the prosecutor said Hung’s former roommate, Tina Zhao, with whom he was friendly, sent him a message asking why he did this.

“If you tell Lin to give me $30,000 before 8pm tonight, everything between us will be over… Please tell her that she and her family need to be careful, otherwise they will have the same experience as me, and even lose more than that,” he replied.

The court was told that at 4.45am on June 12, Hung went to Mr Zhang’s home in Berwick, where he poured petrol on the veranda.

Seeing him approaching on CCTV cameras, Mr Zhang opened the front door to confront Hung, but when he saw her trying to light a match, he immediately slammed the door.

“Go to hell,” he said in Mandarin.

Hung was arrested on June 14 and has spent the last year and a half behind bars.

Six victim impact statements were read to the court by Mr Gray, including those from Zhang’s two young children, who detailed their horror when the house was set on fire.

Mr Zhang said he lived in “constant fear” of Hung between March and June and urged friends to stay the night to keep watch.

“When I saw him face to face, I truly believed he was planning to kill my entire family,” she said.

“Repeated violence, threats and arson attacks destroyed my sense of security… This experience changed the way I viewed the world and my future.”

Hung’s lawyer, Courtney Hart, acknowledged the attack was serious and had a significant impact on the people affected.

He told the court his client came to Australia from Taiwan on a working holiday visa in 2022 following the death of his father.

Ms Hart said the relationship between Hung and his housemates had soured months before he was evicted.

Since his arrest, Hung has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and persistent depressive disorder, the lawyer said.

Ms Hart said Hung was aggrieved by the circumstances surrounding his eviction and claimed he was assaulted by his housemates on March 10.

The court was told he informed police when they attended on March 10 and made a formal statement on March 12, but no charges were laid.

Ms Hart said a psychologist’s report found Hung’s mental illness led to an “inability to stop ruminating about that incident” on March 10, which continued into June.

Judge Carolene Gwynn said Hung had shown a “determined persistence” in seeking revenge and creating fear among those he believed had wronged him.

The case has been partially postponed and will return to court on January 20.