Addiction no excuse for arson of pensioner’s home, says judge

Drug addiction does not excuse setting fire to an 84-year-old man’s house and destroying it, a judge said as he jailed a man aged 24 for a total of eight years on Wednesday.

Judge Sean Ó Donnabhain at Cork Circuit Criminal Court said Martin Doyle had shown "mindless reckless disregard" for his elderly neighbour when he broke into his house on Blarney St in Cork and set it alight.

Doyle, of Mount Eden Rise, Gurranebraher, Cork had pleaded guilty to arson and burglary at the home of the 84-year-old on Blarney Street on October 15th, 2014.

Det Garda Alan Johnson said Doyle had met the man after he left his house on Blarney Street and engaged him in conversation, and learned the man was going shopping in the city centre.

Three separate fires

He went to the man’s unoccupied house and broke in and lit three separate fires upstairs before exiting the premises. The pensioner returned to discover his house on fire.

The man had to be restrained by neighbours from trying to get into the house to recover memorabilia relating to his late wife, who had passed away some time previously.

Garda carried out a technical examination of the semi-detached house and found there had been three separate seats upstairs of the fire, which had destroyed the dwelling.

The pensioner had been homeless for seven months as he waited to have the house completely rebuilt at a cost of €153,000, paid for by his insurance, said Det Garda Johnson.

“He has been severely traumatised by these events - he had to live with his daughter and her family for eight months and he lost all this memorabilia relating to his late wife,” he said.

‘Out of it’

Doyle was abusing substances heavily at the time and by his own admission was “out of it” when he broke into the man’s house and he was “gutted” when he realised what he had done.

Judge Ó Donnabhain - who heard Doyle was the beneficiary of a three-year suspended sentence just months earlier - said drug dependency was no excuse.

“Drugs doesn’t excuse this kind of behaviour, dependency doesn’t excuse this kind of behaviour - this is wilful destruction of a man’s home,” said Judge Ó Donnabhain.

“And this isn’t just the home of some stranger, this is the home of a neighbour who just lives across the road from him - he showed mindless, reckless disregard for this poor man.”

Judge Ó Donnabhain noted Doyle had pleaded guilty, and that was to his credit - but noted Doyle had failed to take a chance given to him just months prior to the arson.

He had been treated leniently by the court in May 2014 when he was given a three-year suspended sentence for robbery from a person, noted the judge.

He failed completely to take benefit from the court’s leniency and had gone out and committed this offence just five months later - and that had to be a factor he had to consider.

Judge Ó Donnabhain lifted the suspension on the three years for robbery and then sentenced Doyle to seven years consecutive, with two years suspended, for the arson and burglary.