Under s 197(4) of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), the mental element of arson requires proof that the offender had the purpose of destroying or damaging the specific subject property, or knew or believed that destruction of or damage to that specific property was more likely than not to result; a generalised intent to damage any property is insufficient. The Victorian victim impact provisions in ss 5(2)(daa) and 5(2)(db) of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), read with the definition of 'victim' in s 3(1), have displaced the common law requirement that unintended consequences must be reasonably foreseeable before they can be taken into account in sentencing. This is a different position from New South Wales.
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