A MAN found responsible for the deaths of two other men in a fire which destroyed a Dublin house in January 1994, had his sentence of 10 years' imprisonment reduced to six years by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty, giving the court's judgment, said Thomas Delaney (32), of North Circular Road, Dublin, had appealed against his sentence arising from his trial on two counts of manslaughter and two of arson before the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in March last year. The jury found him guilty on all four counts.
Delaney had a homosexual partner, Mr Declan Power, and they lived together in a small apartment on North Circular Road.
It appeared, said Mr Justice O'Flaherty, that the building was divided into many small apartments and housed what could be described as a number of down and outs.
Unfortunately, on January 16th, 1994, Delaney and Mr Power were both the worse for drink and a row developed. This had been a feature of their relationship and Delaney had got quite agitated, lit some newspapers and threw them on a sofa.
This sofa consisted of highly flammable material which went up like a fire lighter.
The whole building was consumed, which led to the death, not only of Mr Power but of another man in the building. They died from asphyxia.
Counts of manslaughter in this case were based on the proposition that the defendant had done an unlawful act in setting fire to the sofa in a fit of temper and that it was a highly reckless act.
Counsel for Delaney, said the judge, had invited the court to look at all the circumstances, and while admitting it was a reckless act, claimed that Delaney, even in his wildest nightmare, could not have envisaged it could have such catastrophic results, leading to the deaths of two people and destruction of the building.
Mr Justice O'Flaherty said not only had they to have regard to the consequences of the event but also to the actual quality of the act perpetrated. Delaney had gone through a period of great remorse and agitation.
The court, said the judge, had reached the conclusion that the 10 year sentence was excessive in the circumstances.
It would substitute a term of six years' imprisonment.