A Dublin man who threw a petrol bomb into a house in Darndale, Dublin, killing a toddler who was asleep upstairs, has been acquitted of murder by a Central Criminal Court jury, but found guilty of manslaughter.
Gerard Redmond (36), a father of six, Ferrycarrig Park, Fairfield, Coolock, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Adam Lieghio, who was just a month short of his second birthday when he died of smoke inhalation in a fire at the house in Buttercup Park, Darndale on July 23rd, 2000.
Redmond admitted he threw a petrol bomb into the kitchen to "get back" at Mr Steffanio Lieghio, a 19-year-old who had earlier assaulted him and who usually lived in the house.
Redmond's counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, told the jury his client admitted arson and accepted he had caused the death of the child, but did not want to be branded a murderer for the rest of his life.
The jury considered its verdict for 1 1/4 hours before finding that Redmond did not intend to kill or cause serious injury to anyone at the time he lit the blaze.
The jury first returned a verdict of not guilty to murder. After legal argument, during which Mr Edward Comyn SC, prosecuting, argued that there was a danger of "a misunderstanding" about the verdict or the procedure for returning it, Mr Justice O'Sullivan recalled the jury and asked had it considered the alternative verdict of manslaughter.
The jury foreman replied it had. He went on to return a verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
Mr Justice O'Sullivan remanded Redmond in custody prior to sentencing. His case is to be mentioned in court on Friday.
The defence announced its intention to seek reports from Alcoholics Anonymous and Redmond's employer.
Five people, including Adam Lieghio's mother, his grandmother, a teenage boy, and two children aged 10 and three, escaped from the house at the time of the fire. Steffanio Lieghio had left the area earlier by taxi.
Redmond told garda∅ that in the hours before he lit the blaze, he had drunk several pints of lager, two vodkas, and had smoked a joint of hash and taken "a few lines of cocaine".
In signed statements, he said he wanted to get back at Mr Lieghio, who had hit him earlier, causing a cut to his forehead.
The attack by Mr Lieghio came "out of the blue", according to prosecution witnesses, and minutes later, Mr Lieghio was alleged to have held a knife to a woman's throat. The accused had not known him before that night.
Redmond told garda∅ he was in a rage when he got back home and that he decided to get back at Mr Lieghio. "He was the target", Redmond said. He said he took a petrol container and stuffed a child's sock into it to soak it with the petrol. He lit the can when he was outside the house and threw it through the kitchen window.
The jury heard that Redmond was distressed and remorseful throughout his detention and, when first brought before court, he made no application for bail. Such was his distress over what he had done, he had to be kept in a padded cell during his first week in prison.