Courts

Man gets 15 years for killing boy when he set fire to den

Dermot Griffin found guilty of causing Stephen Hughes’s death in arson attack in 2001

Stephen Hughes’s family and friends outside the court in Dublin yesterday including his mother Elizabeth Hughes and great-grandmother Mary McKeon. Photograph: Collins Courts
Stephen Hughes’s family and friends outside the court in Dublin yesterday including his mother Elizabeth Hughes and great-grandmother Mary McKeon. Photograph: Collins Courts
Declan Brennan
Tue Jun 24 2014 - 01:00

The man convicted of causing the death of a boy 13 years ago by setting a children’s makeshift den on fire has received a 15-year prison sentence.

Stephen Hughes was 12 years old in 2001 when he died in the fire in the den where he had been sleeping overnight.

Dermot Griffin (54), Ballyfermot Road, Ballyfermot, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to manslaughter at Rossfield Avenue, Tallaght, on September 1st, 2001.

Scene of the fire in Tallaght in which Stephen Hughes died in 2001 at the age of 12. Photograph: Colin Keegan.
Scene of the fire in Tallaght in which Stephen Hughes died in 2001 at the age of 12. Photograph: Colin Keegan.
Stephen Hughes (12), who died when the den outside his house in Tallaght in which he was sleeping was set on fire in 2001. Photograph: Collins
Stephen Hughes (12), who died when the den outside his house in Tallaght in which he was sleeping was set on fire in 2001. Photograph: Collins

After a 13-day trial in May, a jury found him guilty by majority verdict. Yesterday, Judge Patricia Ryan backdated a prison term of 15 years to November 2012, when Griffin was taken into custody.

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Speaking outside the Courts of Criminal Justice, the victim’s mother said her family was happy with the sentence imposed on Griffin.

She said: “We are very happy with today’s sentencing and I would like to thank Tallaght gardaí for all their hard work on the case over the past 13 years.

“I would like to thank all the witnesses who came forward and gave their evidence and all my family and friends for the love and support I have received during and prior to this trial.

“At last after 13 years I can say we got justice for Stephen. We’ll never forget Stephen. It’s been 13 long years. It’s over now. Stephen can rest in peace.”

Witnesses thanked

Supt Peter Duff also thanked the witnesses who were involved in what he said was “a long and protracted investigation”. He said he hoped the verdict brought closure to the family.

At the sentencing hearing yesterday, Judge Ryan said she was taking into account the “very, very serious nature” of the offence, the effect of the crime on the victim’s family and his mother’s victim impact statement.

In that statement, read to the court, Elizabeth Hughes said that her whole family have lived with the “unbelievable pain” of losing her first-born son.

“He was a beautiful bright ray of sunshine. He was just a child. The last 13 years will always be the longest and saddest I have endured.

“I pray that from today my son will be able to rest in peace knowing that justice has finally been done.”

Speaking after the sentence Ms Hughes said that she is finally able to say that her son has received justice.

Det Sgt Mary Fitzpatrick told Mary Rose Gearty SC, prosecuting, that Griffin’s 39 previous convictions include assault causing harm, burglary and robbery. They go back to offences committed in 1977, dealt with in the Children’s Court.

In November 1996, the Central Criminal Court imposed a sentence of four years imprisonment for offences under the Firearms Act.

Griffin also served a seven-year sentence after he was convicted of drug dealing in 1985.

Bernard Condon SC, defending, said his client is a father of four who was a heroin addict at the time of the offence. He submitted that this was not a case of an intentional act of killing someone.

Ms Gearty said the Director of Public Prosecutions put this case at the severe end in terms of manslaughter offences.