A 17-year-old youth was yesterday sentenced to seven years in jail with two years suspended for a spate of attacks, including an arson attack on the home of a Cork city councillor who had been outspoken on the issue of anti-social behaviour.
The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to a total of six charges, including the arson attack on the home of Green Party Cllr Chris O'Leary, Loughmahon Road, Mahon, on Cork's southside, on July 14th last.
Cllr O'Leary, in a victim impact statement which he read to Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, described how he feared that his wife, their 12-year-old daughter and himself could have perished in the petrol bomb attack which happened as they were asleep upstairs at about 3.30am.
Cllr O'Leary said that he was awoken by a noise and got a strong smell of burning. He went downstairs to discover smoke and flames coming in from the front porch of the house so he immediately rang the emergency services while dashing upstairs to wake his family. They made their way past the thick smoke and flames out to the back of the house into the garden, he said. They were all in deep shock and suffering from smoke inhalation, and were taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital for treatment.
They were out of their home for seven weeks after the fire which caused some €55,000 worth of damage and while they have now returned to live there, they remain in "a continuous state of alert" and a feeling of no longer "being secure in our home", he said.
Det Sgt Malachy White told the court the attack on Cllr O'Leary's home was one of six incidents on the night perpetrated by the youth who had earlier been arrested on a stolen moped in the Mahon area but released without charge.
Within an hour of his release, the youth had smashed one house window and set a car on fire before petrol bombing Cllr O'Leary's house because he believed he had been ratted on by Cllr O'Leary, who has been outspoken in his condemnation of local anti-social behaviour.
The youth also petrol bombed another house used for a project by the Department of Justice and petrol bombed the Garda station, said Det Sgt White. He added that when he was arrested, he co-operated fully and saved gardaí a lot of technical and forensic work.
The youth's mother told the court that her son had suffered from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and dyspraxia while he had also began abusing drugs at a young age. The youth apologised in court to Cllr O'Leary and the other injured parties. "I'm sorry for what I've done. I didn't really know what I was doing that night - it wasn't planned or anything. I don't even know why I did it - I was out of it with drink and tablets."
Judge Patrick Moran said it was a serious incident which could have resulted in even more serious charges.
He sentenced the youth to five years in jail for the attack with two further years on the other counts which he suspended.