A young man who started a fire on a Luas during the Dublin riots, causing nearly €5 million worth of damage, has been jailed for three years.
Evan Moore (20) of Grangemore Road, Donaghmede, Dublin 13, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to rioting, damaging a Luas by fire and damaging the windows of a Luas tram on November 23rd, 2023. He has been in custody since a sentence hearing last May.
The riot broke out after a five-year-old girl was severely wounded in a stabbing at Parnell Square earlier that day, in which two other children and a creche worker were also injured.
The court heard that the Luas service was suspended for 24 hours and the damage to the tram was estimated at just under €5 million after seats and wiring were damaged.
READ MORE
The estimated cost of the clean-up by council workers in the days after the riot was €159,000, and €115,000 worth of damage was caused to property in the area.
Sentencing him on Monday, Judge Orla Crowe said Moore was “an immature young man who allowed himself to be whipped up by social media” on the day in question.
“He chose to do those things and for that, a custodial sentence has to take place,” she said.
The judge noted it was of concern that Moore was seen at an anti-immigration demonstration in the city centre a number of months later. When questioned by gardaí who spotted him there, he admitted being in town on the day of the riots and later made further admissions.
She noted the Dublin riots caused considerable damage and upset to the population of Dublin and the entire country. “To this day it represents a stain on this city,” she said.
She set a headline sentence of eight years but reduced this to four years taking a number of mitigating factors into account, including that Moore was 18 at the time, has no previous convictions, entered guilty pleas, comes from a stable, pro-social family and is midway through an apprenticeship.
She suspended the final year of this sentence on a number of conditions, including that he be of good behaviour for four years and remain under the supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months upon his release.
At a sentence hearing earlier this year, a compilation of CCTV footage and videos on social media from the day was played to the court. This showed that Moore’s involvement in the riot lasted from 7.05pm to 7.40pm that evening.
He could be seen on the footage moving a bin that was alight and bringing it on to the Luas before damaging windows on the tram.
Detective Inspector Ken Hoare accepted in cross-examination by Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, defending, that subsequent analysis of Moore’s phone found conversations with his mother in which she was asking her son to return home from town.
Det Insp Hoare told Stephen Montgomery BL, prosecuting, that a group of anti-immigrant protesters had gathered at the Garden of Remembrance around 3.30pm following the earlier incident at Parnell Square.
A hostile crowd gathered around 4pm at Cavendish Row, at the bottom of O’Connell Street and the Luas line was blocked there by the gathering.
A total of 600 gardaí were deployed to deal with the riot and it was estimated that at its height, 500 rioters were involved.
Moore was arrested on May 14th, 2024 and during interview, he identified himself on footage.
He agreed that he had got “caught up in the moment” and that he was ashamed of his behaviour and regretted his involvement.
Det Insp Hoare confirmed that Moore has no previous convictions and was 18 years old at the time of the riots.
He acknowledged that Moore made immediate admissions when he was stopped by gardaí during the May protest.
Det Insp Hoare agreed there were different levels of criminality involved in the riot that day which had started on the back of “a horrific attack on a child”.
He acknowledged that many young people had “been whipped up into a frenzy” by ill-informed “malignant narcissists” and “horrific racist commentary” on social media following the attack.
Det Insp Hoare accepted that Moore was one of those people that fell into the category of being “whipped up” and influenced by others.
Moore’s mother, Karen Moore, told Mr Ó Dúnlaing that she had pleaded with her son to come home once she had learned he had gone into the city.
She said she was disgusted, embarrassed and ashamed by his behaviour.
Mr Ó Dúnlaing submitted that his client is from a stable family and has positive employment and is someone who could engage positively in society. A letter of apology was handed to the court.
