A man walked free from a Limerick court yesterday after admitting he threatened to burn a prison officer's home.
Mr John Dundon (23), of Hyde Road, Limerick, was convicted at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday of threatening to damage the house of a Limerick prison officer in August 2001.
The accused, who escaped from Garda custody in April 2002, was extradited from England last August.
Earlier the court heard the accused was a prisoner in Limerick Prison in August 2001 when he said to prison officer Mr Diarmuid Kelly that he would "burn down his house in Raheen". The matter was not reported to gardaí until January 2002 after Mr Kelly's car was burnt out at his home.
Mr Kelly said: "I took the threat seriously and I reported it to the second governor in command and I wrote it down. I went to the gardaí after a serious incident at my house."
Judge Carroll Moran said there was no evidence the accused had been involved in the incident where Mr Kelly's car was burned. He adjourned the case for a year to see how Mr Dundon would get on and ordered him to live within a five-mile radius of Roxboro Road and sign on every Sunday at Roxboro Garda station.