Despite claiming his innocence earlier this summer on the popular social networking website Facebook, Nathan Daniel McNitt, 21, appeared in a Kitchener court last week to quietly plead guilty to arson in relation to the fire that destroyed the New Hamburg grandstand last January.

With family members in court to support him, the Kitchener man heard an agreed statement of facts read before the court.

"This young man has come forward to say, "I started the fire,'" said his defense lawyer Robert Miller.

"It was beyond his wildest thoughts," Miller said, of what McNitt had planned when lighting cardboard and tissue on fire that night with a friend.

In the early hours of Jan. 7, 2007, an unsupervised house party was taking place, hosted at a house on Peel Street.

The accused arsonists, -- the other has since committed suicide -- were in attendance.

Between 30 and 40 youth were at the party

where McNitt and his teenage friend had been drinking together. McNitt has stated they were not drunk.

Another youth asked if the two would like to go outside and commit a prank.

After leaving the party for several minutes, the pair returned.

The grandstand began to burn, and could not be saved by fire fighters.

The fire marshall later determined the fire that destroyed the structure, built in 1947, was deliberately set.

The grandstand had recently been declared a heritage structure.

The following day, McNitt told a friend they had lit a Kleenex box on fire and left it by a support pillar on the grandstand.

"In this conversation, he admitted to doing the fire with [his friend]," said prosecutor Patricia Moore.

McNitt was also asking various friends who had been interviewed by the police what kind of questions were being asked.

McNitt then returned to Calgary, where he has a job and apartment.

"It wasn't a matter of flight to avoid," said Miller.

Miller added McNitt presented himself to police before leaving to see if there were any questions they wanted to ask him.

Miller also mentioned McNitt has been upset with the loss of his good friend.

"Clearly he has struggled with loss," he said.

In the days following the fire, a person walking their dog on the property near the grandstand found some broken beer bottles next to a charred picnic table. It was later determined these bottles had contained gasoline, and were used by McNitt and friends.

The recipe was taken from the Arnarchist's Cookbook and were created by Justin Ferrari, a friend of McNitt's.

McNitt was arrested in Calgary on June 24.

Soon after his arrest, McNitt and several friends were discovered posting on Facebook, in an attempt to clear his name.

"I just wanna thank all the people who stood up for me in this crappy time of bulls--, you don't even know how much it means, i love you all... And also thank all those fags that pointed fingers at me and got me dragged across the f--ing country for nothing," McNitt wrote on July 6.

Two groups were created to show support for McNitt.

The first "Acquit Nathan McNitt," and the second "The Grandstand Conviction," were filled with local youth supporting McNitt and claiming the police had the wrong person.

One supporter felt the police were acting on wrong information when she posted on July 10.

"They call themselves cops, wtf. they could at least use someone BRAIN POWER to get s-- right in the first place. watch it all blow up in the faces. then nathens gonna counter sew them for f-- up his life," she wrote.

Another friend claimed McNitt had an alibi in her June 27 posting.

"No matter what you hear know he DID NOT DO IT I was on the phone with him that night," she wrote.

A supporter wrote on July 14 that McNitt was being used as a scapegoat to keep the public happy and secure a conviction.

"People are angry that the Grandstands were burned, and they're looking for someone to direct their anger at," he wrote. "For them, even an innocent person will work."

McNitt will be sentenced on Jan. 8, at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 102 of Kitchener's Ontario Court at 200 Frederick St., Kitchener.