Arsonist burglar loses appeal

A drug addict who burgled and burned the home of an 81-year-old widower, who had to be restrained by neighbours from retrieving memorabilia of his late wife from the blaze, has lost an appeal against sentence.

Martin Doyle, aged 25, of Mount Eden Rise, Gurranbraher, Cork, had pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to burglary and arson at the home of a then 81-year-old man on Blarney St in the city on October 15, 2014.

One year earlier, Doyle had been given a three-year sentence for robbery but it was suspended in full in the hope that he would deal with his heroin addiction.