After gambling his way to a $30,000 debt, the Sydney restaurateur Angelo Ziotas had another bad idea. He turned off the CCTV inside his Surry Hills restaurant Essenza, lit 50 tea candles, dressed up as a masked intruder and stabbed himself in the back, twice.
Having also used paper to set alight clothes that hed worn, flames spread to and ignited chemicals under a staircase and caused the fire to tear throughout the historic building.
A man broke into the restaurant and stabbed me, I woke up and there was a fire, he told police as he was wheeled into an ambulance. In formal police interviews, the venue manager even pointed the finger at a sacked employee, whose home was searched by police.
But unlike Ziotas, the DNA didnt lie. Nor did C…
Read the full article at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/11/sydney-man-jailed-after-torching-own-restaurant-and-twice-stabbing-himself-in-the-back