Student burned cars "out of sheer stupidity"

A psychology graduate who set fire to two cars in a Tallaght car park "out of sheer stupidity" has been sentenced to 240 hours of work in the community by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Eamonn Gillen (aged 25), of Birchview Heights, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to setting the cars on fire at The Belgard Complex, in the early hours of the morning of March 31, 2002.

"You will never come across me again. I am very sorry," Gillen, who graduated since then with an honours degree in psychology from the American College Dublin, told Judge Desmond Hogan.

Mr Bernard Condon BL, for Gillen, told Judge Hogan that he could not provide an explanation or motive as to why his client had done what he did, except that it was "a one-off act of sheer stupidity" which he now deeply regretted.

Mr Condon said there had been an earlier altercation between his client and bouncers at the door of a disco at the complex after Gillen, who was with a group of other youths, had been told to leave the area by the bouncers.

Garda Amelia Nolan told prosecuting counsel, Ms Martina Baxter BL, that en route to the complex around 4:30am that morning she passed Gillen and another man on the street. Gillen was carrying a red Coca Cola cup in his hand.

When she reached the complex, she saw that two cars had been set on fire and the description given by one of the security men at the door of the nightclub who owned one of the two cars, matched the man she had earlier seen carrying the cup.

Gda Nolan said she sighted him again shortly and gave chase. He was arrested while hiding under a car parked on the street along which she chased him.

Gda Nolan also said that further investigation revealed that Gillen and another man had been to a filling station in the vicinity shortly before he set fire to the car. He had told the station assistant that their car had broken down and filled the ‘Coke’ cup with petrol.

Judge Hogan said he could not understand why a man with a psychology degree, and with intentions to get further education, would commit such an offence.

Gillen handed over €2,400 to the court as compensation for the owners of the two cars.