Man set fire to home of neighbour, 84, when he went out

A man who got talking to an 84-year-old neighbour who was going shopping burgled his home when he was out and set fire to it — causing over €150,000 damage and destroying irreplaceable mementos of his late wife.

The crime and an earlier one resulted in the culprit, Martin Doyle, aged 23, of 20, Mount Eden Rise, Blarney St, Cork, getting a 10-year sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday with the last two years suspended.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said: “This was mindless, reckless, disrespectful for neighbours and others and their property. Drugs does not excuse this kind of behaviour.”