From the Herald Sun:

Drunk torched school
Shelley Hodgson, County Court reporter
November 04, 2006

A LOLLIPOP man who set fire to his own school in a drunken attack loved the students and his work, a court has heard.

Jack John Vacirca, 49, had been drinking with friends on November 10, 2004, when he declared he wanted to see “the red lights of fire trucks”.

Soon after making the declaration, Vacirca lit a fire at Isik College in Broadmeadows.

He had worked at the non-denominational Turkish school, across from his house, as a lollipop man for more than three years.

The fire destroyed three classrooms, causing $617,000 damage.

Defence counsel Brian Bourke said Vacirca was illiterate and dyslexic, and his intellect was in the lowest 1 per cent of the population.

He had also abused alcohol so much that he had suffered brain damage.

Mr Bourke said racist graffiti was scrawled at the school on the night of the fire, students were abused and bottles were thrown into the schoolyard.

One of Vacirca’s drinking companions had since been sentenced to a community-based order for the graffiti attack. There was no evidence Vacirca was involved in the graffiti or bottle-throwing, Mr Bourke said.

“This man had been the lollipop man at the school, just outside his home, and apparently formed a close association with the kids who were going across the road,” Mr Bourke said.

“There’s nothing to suggest there were any racist sentiments uttered by him.”

Ex-wife Adele Vacirca said Vacirca was not malicious and he loved the children at the school, decorating his house and dressing as Santa at Christmas so he could hand out lollies to them.

Prosecutor Trevor Wallwork said Jack Vacirca was seen pouring petrol on a rag and walking into the college.

When Vacirca returned he told his friends: “It went OFF.” He contacted the fire brigade about 12.30am on November 11.

Later that day, when police searched his house, he told them he had accidentally started the fire when he chased a loiterer off the school grounds.

He claimed he had a coughing fit and he threw his cigarette, which flew into an open window of the college.

A Metropolitan Fire Brigade investigation concluded that a cigarette or lighter was the likely cause of the fire in the second classroom.

Mr Wallwork called for an immediate jail term, but Mr Bourke urged the court to show mercy and impose an intensive corrections order or suspended sentence.

Ms Vacirca gave evidence that her ex-husband had worked for his parents, who gave him a small weekly allowance and paid his bills.

Vacirca, of Westmeadows, has pleaded guilty to one count of arson. Judge Frank Dyett released him on bail to be sentenced next Friday.