A Samoan man responsible for the deadly Loafers Lodge fire in Wellington has been sentenced to life imprisonment, with no chance of release for at least 22 years.

Esarona David Lologa, 50, was sentenced in the High Court in Wellington on Friday after being found guilty of murdering five people by deliberately setting fire to the boarding house in May 2023. The victims were Michael Wahrlich, Melvin Parun, Peter O'Sullivan, Kenneth Barnard and Liam Hockings.

RNZ reported that Justice Peter Churchman imposed a life sentence with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years, ordering that Lologa be detained initially as a special patient in a hospital. He will undergo further assessment before any transfer to prison. A separate sentence of 14 years for arson will be served concurrently.

In delivering the sentence, Justice Churchman told a courtroom filled with victims’ families and former residents of Loafers Lodge that he had carefully considered several aggravating and mitigating factors. These included the degree of planning involved in lighting the fire, the number of lives lost, the seriousness of the arson, and the vulnerability of the victims, many of whom were living in emergency or social housing.

The judge also took into account Lologa’s long history of antisocial behaviour and his diagnosis of schizophrenia, which reduced the minimum non-parole period by three years. Despite this, Justice Churchman said the gravity of the offence warranted the most severe penalty available.

In September, a jury found Lologa guilty of five counts of murder and one count of arson. His defence argued he was legally insane at the time of the fire, but this was rejected. The Crown called around 100 witnesses during the four-week trial, including survivors, firefighters, and five mental health experts who testified that Lologa knew his actions were morally wrong.

The experts relied in part on Lologa’s own statements to police and psychiatrists, including claims that he had “done nothing wrong,” which they said demonstrated an understanding of right and wrong. Defence psychiatrist Dr Krishna Pillai disagreed, telling the court Lologa was experiencing a severe psychotic relapse and was acting under hallucinations that commanded him to light the fire.

The court also heard extensive details about Lologa’s background and criminal history. Born in Wellington in 1975, he was raised in a village near Apia, Samoa, before returning to New Zealand as a teenager. As a young adult, he entered a volatile relationship that culminated in a 2009 conviction for attempting to murder his partner’s teenage son with a machete.

Lologa had accumulated around 50 previous convictions, including attempted arson in 1996, assault, and fraud. He first came to the attention of mental health services in 1999 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Over more than two decades, he experienced multiple hospital admissions and periods of unstable housing.

Just weeks before the Loafers Lodge fire, Lologa had absconded from a mental health facility, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.