Trespasser who flooded Bragg Centre caused 'over $7 million in damages'
A man who manually set off fire hydrants, sending 63,800 litres of water gushing into the Australian Bragg Centre over half an hour, caused losses of almost $7.9 million, a court has heard.
Daniel Michael Loeser, 31, of Ingle Farm, entered through a fire door and set off fire hydrants on six levels at the clinical and medical research facility on January 5 this year, causing "substantial damage" to multiple levels of the building on Adelaide's North Terrace.
The District Court heard Loeser was amid a drug-induced psychosis, had recently been released from the City Watch House and was intending to seek medical help from the neighbouring Royal Adelaide Hospital at the time.
Prosecutor Lauren Docking told the court the $7,896,462 damage bill included about $6 million for the loss of rent, because tenants had been unable to use the building due to the flooding.
"Although the financial loss is to be predominantly covered by insurance, there was also a disruption to the extremely important work and service provided by the tenants of the Bragg Centre."
Ms Docking told the court the centre "includes a research and therapy centre specialising in proton radiation treatment to paediatric, adolescent and adult patients who are battling rare forms of cancer".
She said Loeser, who "unlawfully" entered the building via a fire door, "manually opened the fire hydrant valves on levels eight, nine, 10, 12, 13 and 14, causing severe flooding".
The court heard a firefighter found Loeser in a kitchen area holding "large kitchen knives".
He was "not threatening anyone with them, but he wasn't initially letting go of them", Ms Docking said.
Loeser was arrested and later pleaded guilty to a basic count of serious criminal trespass and a charge of damaging a building, on the basis that he was reckless.
Ms Docking said the only appropriate penalty was a prison term, to which Loeser's defence lawyer, Andrew Ey, agreed.
Mr Ey said his client was "suffering some sort of drug-induced psychosis" at the time, and had been intending to seek help from the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
"His instructions are that he was wishing to attend and obtain medical treatment of some sort.
"In his confused and dis-regulated state, he was unable to make the connection that he was in the wrong place.
He said his client had been arrested the day before, on January 4, for being unlawfully on premises after refusing to leave an acquaintance's home.
Mr Ey said Loeser was arrested, taken to the City Watch House and "somewhat surprisingly given his state", released on bail.
"He wanders through the city and then finds himself at the Bragg Centre shortly thereafter," he said.
He said his client had been "up for a number of days" after consuming GHB and methamphetamine and was coming off the drugs when he entered the building.
He asked Judge Geraldine Davison to be as lenient as possible when sentencing Loeser, and asked her to impose a longer-than-usual non-parole period to allow Loeser to be supervised and drug tested when released from custody.
Judge Davison said Loeser, who will be sentenced next month, was "quite literally caught in the act".
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