A 23-YEAR-OLD man was last night found guilty of setting his teacher’s house on fire when he was aged 16.
Gardaí said he had told them shortly after the blaze that he did not like the teacher because she “kept getting me kicked out of class”.
A jury at Waterford Circuit Court last night found Richard Nugent (23), of Andrew Street, Waterford city, guilty of causing fire damage to the home and car of his then teacher, now aged 38, at her home on August 7th, 2003.
Sentencing was adjourned to a sitting of the court on Thursday, and Nugent was released on continuing bail.
The court heard the teacher was at the time sleeping upstairs in her Waterford city home, and her two sons, aged six and seven, slept in a bedroom next door.
The jury found Nugent guilty on two counts of damaging the property of his former teacher.
The teacher, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said in evidence at the outset of the seven-day trial that the fire caused an estimated total damage of €20,000.
The main evidence against Nugent was an admission some three weeks following the fire, which he had since retracted because he maintained he felt pressured into it.
Summing up to the jury yesterday, counsel for Nugent, Colman Cody, said “gardaí were under pressure” in the investigation and his client had been subject to “a stitch-up”.
Noel Whelan, prosecuting, told the jury it was “being asked to accept an elaborate conspiracy . . . that four gardaí lied” in the case.
Sentencing was adjourned to Thursday and Nugent was released on continuing bail.