A Co Down man has lost his 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 commit such appalling crimes against innocent people must anticipate their own lives will 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-restrainy without which social and community life would be quite impossible", Mr Justice Hardiman, sitting with Mr Justice O'Sullivan and Mr Justice McKechnie, said.
Murphy, from 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 ten day trial heard Murphy had consumed ten pints during the course of July 5th 1999. After behaviour described as increasingly bizarre, he was ejected from Day's pub on the island at 1.45am on July 6th.
He later entered Ms Coyne's house through the unlocked door. In a statement to gardaí, Murphy said he was in a rage at the time and was "mad at the way I was treated since coming onto 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".