Man jailed for arson deaths of three sisters

A restaurant worker has been jailed for 14 years for the manslaughter of three elderly sisters who died in a house fire on an island off the Galway coast.

Alan Murphy, 27, from Spelga Avenue, Newcastle, Co Down, was convicted last month in Galway Circuit Court of the unlawful killing of the sisters, all aged in their 70s and 80s.

He was also found guilty of four separate charges of arson and endangering the women's lives by starting the fire in July 1999. Murphy had denied the charges.

During the 10-day trial, the court heard how Murphy lit the fire in the house of Eileen Coyne, 81, after being thrown out drunk from a pub on Inishbofin Island.

Ms Coyne died in the blaze, as did her sisters Bridget McFadden, 80, from Reading, England, and Margaret Concannon, 72, from Slough.

Sentencing Murphy to serve 14 years for the manslaughter of each of his victims, to run concurrently, Mr Justice Carroll Moran said: "The maximum sentence for this offence is life imprisonment.

"Not withstanding the submissions made that he was innocently intoxicated, the jury believed that he did have criminal intent and that he did know what he was doing at the time.

"When compared to most crimes which the courts have to deal with, this was as horrific as they come. Three lives were needlessly and uselessly lost."