The court was told Helmore had smoked methamphetamines on the night he set up camp at Ulupna Island, near Tocumwal, on Friday, March 29 last year.
The next day — Easter Saturday — he went for a walk in the bush where he lit between 33 and 37 fires, within 1km of where others were camping.
In handing down her sentence, Judge Robyn Harper said Helmore was having a psychotic episode at the time and believed he was going to die.
“You became delusional, you believed you were lost, and you couldn’t locate water,” she said.
“You were experiencing a psychotic episode and genuinely believed you needed to attract the plane overhead.”
Helmore told police he continued to light the fires after he was unable to attract the attention of the plane.
The fires ranged in size from 0.006 hectares to 1.2 hectares.
It took four hours for firefighters from 33 CFA units as well as Forest Fire Victoria firefighters to bring the fires under control.
It took seven days before they were all declared as extinguished.
About 2000 people were camping at Ulupna Island at the time.
Judge Harper said Helmore had suffered a psychotic episode two months before the fires and had been prescribed anti-psychotic medication, but had stopped taking it in March.
She said Helmore’s psychosis could be caused by either his diagnosed schizophrenia or from a significant head injury he received in a workplace accident in 2017.
She said the psychosis was not drug-induced, despite Helmore using methamphetamines the night before the fires and having two bags of the drug on him when he was arrested by police.
Judge Harper said Helmore’s prospects of rehabilitation were entirely dependent on him taking his medication.
“The risk is minimal if you continue to take your medication,” she said.
Helmore was sentenced to 236 days in jail — which has already been served in pre-sentence detention — and an 18-month community corrections order.
The corrections order includes conditions that he be assessed and treated for drug use and his mental health.
He also has to undertake programs to reduce his re-offending.
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