Appeal dismissed over Inishbofin fire deaths

A Co Down man yesterday lost an appeal against his conviction and 14-year sentence for the manslaughter of three elderly sisters who died after he set fire to their house on Inishbofin island four years ago.

In dismissing Alan Murphy's appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal warned that those who commited such appalling crimes against innocent people must anticipate their own lives would be "gravely blighted by long custodial sentences".

This was necessary to protect society as a whole and to reinforce "the basic social norms which require from every citizen a measure of self-restraint, without which social and community life would be quite impossible", said Mr Justice Hardiman.

Because of Murphy's actions, "three innocent elderly women died in appalling circumstances", he said. The west Galway Coroner had described the fire scene at the women's home as forever "transfixed in my consciousness".

While a 14-year sentence was very long and likely to have grave consequences for Murphy, now aged 29, the court was satisfied that "very long sentences are a justified reaction to acts of unprovoked savagery which have gross consequences for the lives and wellbeing of other people".

There had been "all too many cases" recently in which violent death or serious injury was caused to innocent people because a defendant had "yielded to their overweening sense of rage or self-centred resentment and either unleased a direct attack of life imperilling ferocity or took other steps, as in this case, which imperilled lives".

Later, when such cases came to trial, there was great emphasis on the accused, their character, problems and good qualities, he said. This was clear from testimonials of Murphy's connections which were presented to the trial judge. None of those testimonials, however, made any attempt to address the crime itself.

Murphy, Spelga Avenue, Newcastle, was convicted in March 2001 of the manslaughter at Middlequarter, Inishbofin, on July 6th, 1999, of Ms Eileen Coyne (81) and her two sisters, Ms Bridget McFadden (80) and Ms Margaret Concannon (72) and to setting fire to Ms Coyne's house on the same date, endangering the lives of the three sisters.

His 10-day trial heard Murphy had consumed 10 pints of beer during the course of July 5th, 1999. After behaviour described as increasingly bizarre, he was ejected from Day's pub on the island at 1.45 a.m. on July 6th.

He later entered Ms Coyne's house through an unlocked door.

In a statement, Murphy said he was in a rage at the time and was "mad at the way I was treated since coming on to the island". He started to light papers in the kitchen "for a sort of revenge for the way I was treated in the pub". He had in the back of his mind the fire would take hold but said: "It didn't bother me then."

Mr Justice Hardiman rejected arguments that Murphy's consumption of drink and prescribed medication for a rib injury was a significant mitigating factor on the basis that it altered the moral quality of his actions.