A young chef, who caused almost €4 million damage when he burned a pub and bed and breakfast establishment to the ground, has had his sentence adjourned to May 2004 by Judge Joseph Matthews at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Gaven Kinsella (20), Templeview Way, Clare Hall, Baldoyle, Dublin, put a match to a black plastic bag in a wheelie bin outside Grainger's public house and B&B in Baldoyle when he was on his way home, drunk, on January 10th, 2002. He told gardaí that he did it "for a laugh" and because he was "locked and being a fool".
The lounge area, the B&B and the adjacent shop, all the property of Mr Mark Grainger, was completely destroyed but seven people who were staying there managed to escape after being alerted by the fire alarm.
Det Garda Paul O'Donohue said the damage totalled €3,809,214. Kinsella, who went home after lighting the match, went to the gardaí the following evening after hearing about the fire from a friend and reading about in an evening newspaper.
Kinsella, a former lounge boy at the premises, pleaded guilty to recklessly damaging it by fire. He has no previous convictions and the court hearing was conducted on his 20th birthday.
Mr Peter Thompson, who employed Kinsella as a chef in the Clontarf Court Hotel after the offence, said he was given a promotion after three months working for him and that he had the potential to become a "junior Conrad Gallagher".
Judge Matthews adjourned the case until May 17th because he wants Kinsella to partake in an alcohol awareness programme. He ordered a urine analysis report and probation report.
He said: "There was no intent to burn down any premises. He was reckless, without any thought for the consequences. That's the bottom line.
"But it had a very traumatic affect, not just on a property, but on the lives of people, because of the stupid actions of a drunk youth.
"He is a man of unimpeachable record, except for this horrific blip on the radar screen and this creates a severe difficulty because, if people had died in their beds, even if he was a living saint, the consequences would have been horrific."
Mr Grainger told the court he had been "to hell and back in the last 18 months" but his biggest concern when he arrived at the scene was the welfare of the seven people who were staying in the B&B.
"I was also concerned that I had to make my 24 employees redundant. I feel sorry for them and their families, who too had to rebuild their lives and look for employment elsewhere."
Mr Grainger added that he suffered a personal financial loss of €1 million and, for the first year after the fire, was unable to get insurance.