A Dublin man was jailed for 15 years by a judge at the Central Criminal Court yesterday after he was convicted of the manslaughter of a Garda sergeant who died in a fire at Tallaght Garda station over two years ago.
Daniel O'Toole is already serving a 15-year sentence for arson at Tallaght Garda station on July 21st, 1999, when Sgt Andrew Callanan (37), a father of three, died.
Mr Justice Carney ordered the 1new sentence to date from the imposition of the arson sentence last July.
At the end of the prosecution case, Mr George Birmingham SC, defending, made an application, which Mr Justice Paul Carney accepted, that the evidence showed only an intent by O'Toole to commit suicide.
Mr Justice Carney directed the jury of eight men and four women to return a verdict of manslaughter and to enter verdicts of not guilty of the murder of a garda acting in the course of his duties and not guilty of murder.
The penalty for the murder of a garda acting in the course of his duties carries an automatic sentence of 40 years.
At the beginning of his retrial last week O'Toole had pleaded not guilty to both murder counts but guilty to manslaughter, but the State did not accept the plea.
A jury last June failed to agree on the murder charges but convicted him of arson.
O'Toole (38), of Cashel Avenue, Crumlin, was convicted of the manslaughter of Sgt Callanan on July 21st, 1999.
Jailing him yesterday for 15 years, Mr Justice Carney said he had been convicted on the basis that his intent was to commit suicide. The judge said suicide had ceased to be a criminal offence since 1993 and when it was legalised a large body of case law was set aside which included the consequences of taking someone else down at the same time.
He said O'Toole would almost certainly, before 1993, have been convicted of capital murder. He said the case had to be dealt with on the basis of the intent only to commit suicide.