Man gets 5 years for setting fire to student

A law graduate has been sentenced for five years in prison with 18 months suspended for setting fire to a medical student in a Galway nightclub three years ago.

Matthew Sheridan, aged 24, from Cabinteely, Dublin, who was a second year medical student at NUIG at the time, was attending a Halloween fancy dress party at Halo night-club at Upper Abbeygate St, Galway, on October 31, 2012, when the accused, Brian Keane, aged 23, from Grange, Templemore Road, Thurles, Co Tipperary, came up behind him on the dance floor, took out his lighter and set fire to Mr Sheridan’s costume for no apparent reason.

Mr Sheridan’s homemade sheep costume, which he had made by using highly flammable glue to stick cotton wool to a T-shirt and pants, burst into flames instantaneously.

He was engulfed in flames and had to be placed in an induced coma for weeks afterwards at UHG, having suffered over 75% burns to his entire body.

He was transferred to St James’s Hospital in Dublin and also spent four months in a specialist burns unit in France.

Keane pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court moments before his trial was due to begin last February to intentionally or recklessly causing serious bodily harm to Mr Sheridan on the night in question.

Sentence was adjourned to yesterday’s court for the preparation of reports.

Garda Sean McHugh said Keane left the night-club immediately. He went to gardaí the next day and identified himself as the male with the lighter on the CCTV.

During his second interview, Keane accepted the injuries were caused by him. He claimed it was a prank that went wrong and that he had not intended to cause harm to anybody. He did not know the victim prior to this.

The court heard the victim was discharged from St James Hospital on February 1, 2013, but continues to receive treatment.

Mr Sheridan had to forego his studies for over a year. He has since resumed and is now in fourth year.

Garda McHugh said the accused was a third year student at NUIG at the time, studying corporate law. He had gone on to do his LLB in UCC and had just finished a Masters in Law in Trinity.

Mr Sheridan read out his own victim impact statement in court.

At Mr Fahy’s request, Mr Sheridan stood up in the witness box and showed his disfigured hands to Judge Rory McCabe.

He said he had never received an apology from Keane. “I was the victim of a faceless, nameless person I did not know.

He literally burnt me to the bone,” Mr Sheridan read aloud to a hushed courtroom.

Bernard Madden, defending, said his client

had written a letter of apology now and he read it to the court on Keane’s behalf.

Accepting the attack was not premeditated and the accused had no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty, Judge McCabe said the appropriate sentence was five years. Following further submissions from Mr Madden, the judge suspended the final 18 months of the sentence for 18 months.