In NWT Supreme Court, Monday, Rowe was sentenced to three years in prison. On Dec. 12, he pleaded guilty to arson causing bodily harm for torching an Old Town cabin, Sept. 7.

Lindsey Rocher, 15, and Claire Brookes, 17, were in the cabin. Both were badly burned trying to escape the blaze.

During the sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Loretta Colton said Rowe "was acting on hearsay, on rumour" when he decided to torch the log cabin at 5005 Bryson Drive.

After a night of bingeing on booze, cocaine and marijuana, Rowe decided to start the fire using gasoline as an accelerant.

"(Rowe) appointed himself judge and jury and carried out the sentence, (saying) we're going to burn the cabin down," said Colton.

She called the crime "vigilante justice" that "must be condemned."

Lindsey's father Les Rocher was not satisfied with the sentence. He was angry that any blame for the fire was directed at Lindsey, saying his son will suffer both emotionally and physically for a lifetime.

"My son ... was the victim. Where's the justice there?"

Les Rocher owned the cabin and received a $78,000 cash settlement from his insurance company for the damage to the structure.

With time served and release provisions, Rowe "will be out before I get the cabin rebuilt," said Les Rocher.

Severe burns

Lindsey was in hospital for about eight weeks, six of those in Edmonton. He had burns to his right arm, hand, whole back and both feet.

He is healing but said, "the scarring is still pretty brutal, but the pain has gone away." He missed school all fall and "thinks about it (the fire) all the time, how it might have been avoided."

Claire Brookes said she's not in too much pain. But she, too, is scarred for life. She suffered second- and third-degree burns to her face, feet, back and hands.

She has undergone several skin graft operations, and she has to wear special gloves on both hands to speed up the healing process.

"My hands get cold really easily and if I accidentally hit on something it hurts more than it would normally and I have to deal with these annoying gloves all the time."

Claire was relieved when the burns on her face healed well. She still has to undergo cosmetic surgery to smooth out the scarring on her hands. They are constant reminders of that awful September morning.

"I remember people used to compliment me, 'oh, you have such soft hands.' But I'm never going to get those compliments ever again. Now when people see my hands they say, 'wow, you have really small hands.' That's all they say," she said.

Claire's father, Terry Brookes, said he no longer feels any anger toward Rowe.

"There are mental and physical scars to numerous young adults that will be with them for the rest of their lives ... all the way from the convicted to the actual victims, they have to live with that ... everyone is a victim here."

In delivering sentence, Justice Ted Richard knocked six months off Rowe's sentence for the three months he spent in pre-trial custody. Richard also asked that Rowe serve his remaining time in an Ontario prison "for security reasons and also so that (he) might be near (his) family."

He also recommended Rowe receive psychiatric treatment and ordered him to submit a DNA sample to the RCMP.