{"id":68616,"date":"2026-08-10T04:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T04:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/68616\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T04:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T04:27:14","slug":"man-accused-of-coles-bay-home-invasion-and-arson-pleads-not-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/68616\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of Coles Bay home invasion and arson pleads not guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">One of the three men accused of attacking a 76-year-old on Tasmania&#8217;s east coast last month has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Jason Robert Burns appeared in the Launceston Magistrates Court today on multiple charges, including aggravated armed robbery, aggravated assault, motor vehicle stealing and arson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The 33-year-old from the Launceston suburb of Invermay is one of three men allegedly behind a violent attack on a Coles Bay man on the morning of Saturday, July 11.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Police allege 76-year-old Grant Whelan was tied up at his home, having firearms stolen, his car stolen and his house set alight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Whelan spent six days in the Royal Hobart Hospital after the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Appearing via video link from prison this morning, Mr Burns pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The burnt rubble of a house. In the background, a shed and shipping container still stand.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/789a1a173cecaf9c866df6b9d0771c63.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The destroyed remains of Grant Whelan&#8217;s Coles Bay house. (ABC News: Mitchell Woolnough)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He is due to appear in the Supreme Court in Launceston on September 25.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Magistrate Simon Brown remanded him in custody.<\/p>\n<p>Report crimeCall Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000Report anonymously via the\u00a0<a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimestopperstas.com.au\/report-a-crime\/\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/externallink\/11151944\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime Stoppers website<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Burns was arrested alongside two other men \u2014 Charlie Hills, 29, and Hayden Morrison, 33.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">They all face similar charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Hills&#8217;s lawyer previously indicated his client would plead not guilty. Mr Hills was granted bail on July 31, and is due to return to court on September 8.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Morrison is due to reappear in court tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">There has been an outpouring in support from the Tasmanian community for Mr Whelan since the incident, with more than $100,000 raised in an online fundraiser and volunteers working to help clean up the burnt remains of his home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Whelan was released from the Royal Hobart Hospital on July 16 after six days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The missing firearms remain missing, with Tasmanian Police calling for information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the three men accused of attacking a 76-year-old on Tasmania&#8217;s east coast last month has pleaded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74217,22,21,35446,35732,57602,90499],"class_list":["post-68616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-aggravated-assault","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-coles-bay","tag-grant-whelan","tag-gun-theft","tag-jason-robert-burns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68616","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=68616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}