Teen guilty of petrol bomb attack sent back to jail

ONE of the three youths jailed for the horror petrol bomb attack which left two Limerick children with catastrophic burns was sent back to prison yesterday for 14 months when he admitted a long list of offences committed since his release.

Robert Sheehan, 18, of Pineview Gardens, Moyross, pleaded guilty at Limerick District Court to motoring offences and unlawful possession of a knife when he got involved in a vicious row.

He was jailed for two years in October 2007 by Limerick Circuit Court for his part in the attack which left Millie and Gavin Murray with life-threatening burns.

Millie, who was seven at the time of the attack and Gavin, five, are still undergoing extensive treatment.

Jonathan O’Donoghue, 18, from Moyross, who organised the attack, was jailed for eight years, and John Mitchell, 18, who also took part, was jailed for five years.

Sheehan acted as lookout when the attack was carried out on September 10, 2006.

Inspector Seamus Gallagher outlined Sheehan’s latest crime spree for the court yesterday.

On August 4 last, a Garda patrol car came on Sheehan as he drove through Moyross. Sheehan failed to stop and sped through the huge estate at speed, driving onto footpaths, narrowly missing children. He then drove through a green before crashing into the wall of a house, narrowly missing children playing in the front garden.

Sheehan was involved in a violent row outside a shop in Moyross on October 21 last.

Insp Gallagher said: “CCTV evidence showed Sheehan involved in vicious violence, fighting.”

Sheehan left and returned with a knife and chased the man he had a fight with down the street.

Insp Gallagher said Sheehan had 48 previous convictions.

Sheehan pleaded guilty to charges which included dangerous driving and unlawful possession of a knife. Last week Limerick Circuit Court sentenced Sheehan to 10 months for a series of road traffic offences.

The attack on the Murray children was carried out as the children waited in their mother’s car after she called to a neighbour’s house in Moyross.

When Sheehan, O’Donoghue and Mitchell were jailed on pleading guilty to the attack,

Limerick Circuit Court heard graphic details of the burns suffered by the two children.

More than 24% of Millie’s body was badly burned and Gavin suffered 22% burns.

The majority of Gavin’s burns were to his head and his left ear “melted off” in the inferno. Such was his agony in hospital medical teams had to put him under full anaesthetic when replacing his bandages.

The court heard the children will have to live with life-long physical and psychological damage as a result of what had happened. They now have to wear special burn suits, which are very uncomfortable.

Judge Carroll Moran said both children had suffered catastrophic injuries, and described the attack as an act of “anarchic nihilism”.