{"id":42667,"date":"2026-07-02T04:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/42667\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T04:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:03:10","slug":"oxford-hotel-arsonist-joseph-chehade-jailed-over-1-5-million-north-adelaide-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/42667\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford Hotel arsonist Joseph Chehade jailed over $1.5 million North Adelaide blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge has jailed a man who “embarked on a consistent campaign of terror” against his former business partner, including torching the complex containing the Oxford Hotel in North Adelaide.<\/p>\n

Joseph Chehade, 39, was jailed on Thursday after pleading guilty to criminal trespass, aggravated assault and arson.<\/p>\n

In sentencing on Thursday, District Court judge Anthony Allen said Chehade’s offending began after he and his former business partner Walter Ventura severed ties on July 13, 2023.<\/p>\n

“I agree with the submission advanced by your counsel that your behaviour at the time of this offending came about as a consequence of you having completely lost control of your life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You embarked on a consistent campaign of terror against your victim, having lost all self-control.”\"firefighters<\/p>\n

The arson caused about $1.5 million damage to the Oxford Hotel complex. (ABC News: Shannon Pearce)<\/p>\n

Judge Allen said Chehade’s “campaign” began when he smashed windows at Mr Ventura’s home before assaulting him in front of his family.<\/p>\n

“You pushed the victim part way down the stairs and verbally abused him. You then picked up a broomstick and struck the victim on multiple occasions, approximately 10 times, with the broom handle, striking him to the head and body,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The victim’s terrified wife called the police, as did his traumatised children.<\/p>\n

“It is apparent his children thought you were going to kill their father.<\/p>\n

“The fact that you would commit this offence in the vicinity of two young children is extremely concerning.”<\/p>\n

Judge Allen said Chehade was subsequently arrested by police and released on bail.<\/p>\n

\"old<\/p>\n

Joseph Chehade set the complex containing the Oxford Hotel alight in July 2024. (Supplied: Lorenzo Krstic)<\/p>\n

He said the man came to the attention of police again on July 27, 2024, after he started an “extremely dangerous” fire at a business complex containing the Oxford Hotel at 107 O’Connell Street in North Adelaide.<\/p>\n

“Through your counsel you say you have no memory of lighting the fire and deny this being an act of retribution against your business partner,” Judge Allen said.<\/p>\n

“The presence of accelerant in two distinct locations within the premises speaks strongly against this being some sort of accidental fire that has simply got out of hand.<\/p>\n

“Whilst it might be that you did not intend to cause the amount of damage that occurred, that being in the vicinity of about $1.5 million, I am satisfied that you deliberately lit the fire as a consequence of your continuing fixated discontent towards the victim.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

District Court judge Anthony Allen jailed Joseph Chehade for five years. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

Judge Allen said that victim impact statements provided to the court make it “apparent” that Chehade’s “behaviour has had a terrible, long-lasting impact”.<\/p>\n

Chehade was jailed for five years with a non-parole period of two years and nine months.<\/p>\n

The sentence was backdated to when Chehade was taken into custody on July 27, 2024, making him eligible for release on parole in April next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge has jailed a man who “embarked on a consistent campaign of terror” against his former business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,33379,27894,14595,8191,13989,33377,4303,12364,33378,13991],"class_list":["post-42667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-anthony-allen","tag-business-partner","tag-damage","tag-district-court","tag-joseph-chehade","tag-oxford-hotel","tag-pub","tag-sentence","tag-trespass","tag-walter-ventura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}