A man who lit bottle of flammable liquid and threw at an apartment during a confrontation on the day of his brother’s murder inquest has been jailed for more than two years.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Nathan Coakley (33), a member of the Hutch family, was suffering significant stress at the time amid ongoing threats connected to a feud.
The court was told the feud was not of his making, but he was living in a state of heightened anxiety and suffering from post-traumatic stress, which contributed to substance misuse.
The offence occurred on the date of an inquest into the murder of his brother, Derek Coakley Hutch.
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The bottle failed to ignite and no one was injured. Coakley has since addressed his drug misuse.
Coakley of Buckingham Street Upper, Dublin 1, pleaded guilty to affray at Liberty House, Dublin 1, on July 7th, 2022. He has 105 previous convictions and is serving a sentence for a drug offence. He is due to be released later this year.
On Wednesday, Judge Martin Nolan said Coakley had been involved in a verbal altercation and seemed dissatisfied with the result. He returned with an ambition to do damage to the property and threw a lit bottle containing flammable liquid at the apartment.
Nolan said this did not work, and he was pursued from the scene by a man waving a saw.
The judge said Coakley encountered gardaí before retreating to his own home. He said gardaí pursued the case and brought it to court, where Coakley pleaded guilty to affray.
The judge said he was taking into account the surrounding circumstances and Coakley’s record of offending. He set a headline sentence of four years.
He considered mitigation and imposed a two-year and three-month sentence consecutive to the term Coakley is already serving. He had been due for release later this year.
Garda Kieran Stapleton told prosecuting barrister Aoife McNickle that CCTV before the court showed Coakley engaging in a shouting match with another man, who waved a saw in his direction.
Coakley left and returned with a plastic bottle filled with flammable liquid, which he lit and threw at an apartment. It failed to ignite and he can be seen on the CCTV waving the bottle and spraying out the liquid.
Defending barrister Keith Spencer said Coakley’s brother, Derek, had been murdered in 2018 and this offence occurred on the day of the inquest into his death. He said there had been some tensions and division arising from circumstances within the family.
He said Coakley was living a hugely stressful existence at the time and was the subject of many threats of violence. He had trouble coping and was struggling with addiction issues.
Spencer said Coakley has attended residential treatment and has been clean of drugs since 2024. He said his client is looking to put criminality behind him and be a support to his family.
