Youth jailed for petrol-bomb attack on Green councillor’s house

A COUNCILLOR who has been outspoken on anti-social behaviour was lucky to survive with his wife and daughter when their home was petrol-bombed and yesterday the teenaged culprit was sentenced to seven years in jail with the last two years suspended.

Sean Quinn, aged 17, from 7 Ashwood, Skehard Road, Cork, told Detective Sergeant Malachy White he did it because he believed Cllr Chris O’Leary had “ratted” on him to the gardaí for an earlier incident involving a stolen moped.

Quinn said yesterday: “I am very sorry for what I done.”

The youth had escaped through a window of his home despite being told by his parents to stay at home that night.

Judge Patrick J Moran said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court: “This kind of behaviour cannot be condoned by any court. It is most serious.”

Afterwards Cllr O’Leary said he had sympathy for the youth’s family but he welcomed the sentence as he believed it sent out a strong message that the courts would not tolerate anti-social behaviour or people who attacked those who stood up to such behaviour.

“It’s sent out a clear message which I advocated for some time, that people have to be prepared to come forward and go through the process, it’s not easy, it’s traumatic,” he said.

Quinn pleaded guilty to six charges including the arson attack on the home of Green Party Cllr O’Leary at 17 Loughmahon Road, Mahon, Cork, at around 4am on July 14 last.

Cllr O’Leary described how he feared his wife Angela, their 12-year-old daughter Orla and himself could have ended up in coffins following the petrol bomb attack which happened as they were asleep upstairs.

Cllr O’Leary woke to 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. He rang the emergency services and dashed upstairs to wake his family.

He followed his wife as he carried his daughter downstairs as they managed to make their way through the thick smoke and the fierce flames out to the back of the house and into the garden.

They were all in deep shock and suffering from smoke inhalation and were taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital for treatment, said Cllr O’Leary in a victim impact statement which he read to the court.

They were out of their home for seven weeks during refurbishment 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.

“I have continued to reflect on what would have happened if I was not at home or if I did not wake. The results would have seen my family organising our funerals or me organising the funerals of my wife and child,” he said.

Det Sgt White described the night of crime carried out by Quinn.

The defendant and others were arrested for travelling on a stolen moped on the night of July 13. He was released at around 11.30pm. A little over two hours later he had thrown a brick through the home of the family who owned the moped.

He then went to another part of Mahon and set fire to a car. Afterward he made two petrol bombs at a friend’s house using petrol in a can that was for use in lawnmower. He threw one bomb at the O’Leary house and another at a property where a Department of Justice-funded project was located.

The defendant’s mother, Annmarie Neff, said her son had suffered from ADHD and dyspraxia and had been using drugs since the age of 13.

“I can’t condone what he did and he will have to stand alone today in terms of what sentence he gets but does need a lot of help,” she said.

The two charges related to the O’Leary home were of throwing a petrol bomb which created a risk of death or serious harm to another, and arson at 17 Loughmahon Road, Mahon.