Man jailed for setting fire to family home after argument

A man who set fire to his family home after a row, causing more than €200,000 worth of damage, has been jailed for three years.

Anthony Hayes (35) pleaded guilty to a charge of arson at a house on Hollywood Estate, Cork on June 35th, 2016. Hayes lived in the house, which is owned by Cork City Council, with his partner and children.

He also pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to two other counts of arson after two adjoining houses were damaged by the same fire.

Det Garda Aidan Forrest told the court how neighbours in an adjoining property at 3.15am to find Hayes's house engulfed in flame and raised the alarm.

The two people living in one adjoining house and the two adults and two children living in the other were not injured, he told the court.

There was some €168,000 worth of damage caused to Hayes’s house and it has remained boarded up and unoccupied since the incident.

There was €50,000 worth of damage caused to one adjoining house and €28,000 to the other. Both houses are privately owned and the occupants have since returned, according to Det Garda Forrest.

Gardaí became suspicious after discovering three or four sources to the fire. CCTV footage showed Hayes returning to house shortly before the fire broke out, he said.

Arrested

Hayes was arrested and was eventually co-operative. It emerged that on the day of the fire, he had been involved in a row with his partner and had left the house.

He returned later after his partner and children had left. When he set the fire in the house, there was nobody in the building, said Det Garda Forrest.

Hayes had some 25 previous convictions, mainly for public order offences.

Det Garda Forrest agreed with Alice Fawsett SC, defending, that Hayes was extremely remorseful.

Personal items such as family photos were lost in the blaze and Hayes got "an almighty fright" when he realised what he had done, said Ms Fawsett as she pleaded for leniency.

A forensic psychologist’s report found found he posed no risk and given he had not come to Garda attention since, the defence was asking for a suspended sentence, said Ms Fawsett.

But Judge Seán O Donnabhain said it was not “only a serious offence but also a worrying offence” given that Hayes had no regard for the safety of people in the neighbouring houses.

“One wants to find out what was going on in the mind of the arsonist. He was overcome with rage and was acting out of rage when he lit the fire in the home he shared with his partner and family,” said the judge.

“He had no regard for the damage caused and the danger to neighbouring occupiers and but for one of the occupants waking up, one would not like to think of what would happened.”

The judge also noted the high cost of the damage and said he felt he had to impose a custodial sentence.

He sentenced Hayes to seven years in prison, suspending the final four years on condition that he keep the peace and be on good behaviour upon release.