Arsonist whose getaway bike leaves without him has sentenced reduced

A Dublin man who was caught by gardaí when his getaway motorbike left without him after he had set a car on fire has had his prison sentence reduced from 10 to eight years.

Today the three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal made the reduction after it had previously held that part of the original sentence imposed on Paul McGrath for possession of firearms and arson was "excessive".

McGrath (aged 49), with addresses in Killarney Street Dublin and at Castle Court, Killgobbin Wood, Stepaside, Co Dublin pleaded guilty in July 2007 before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a shotgun and the arson of a car at Ballyowen Lane, Lucan on December 12, 2005.

He also pleaded guilty to having a 9mm semi-automatic pistol and 10 rounds of ammunition at Gallops Pub in Leopardstown Valley, Dublin, having a silencer at his Stepaside home and having a small amount of cocaine and cannabis worth €30 at Dundrum Garda Station on June 6, 2005.

Gardaí recovered a pistol after McGrath had made a boast in a pub about having the weapon. The silencer was found in a pillow after gardaí searched his home.

McGrath said he was carrying out an arson attack in December 2005 because he owed someone a favour as a result of losing the pistol and the silencer to the gardaí.

He was found with a double barrelled sawn-off shotgun and 12 cartridges after a garda caught him running from the scene of a burning car.

McGrath said he was wearing a motorcycle helmet at the time because he was due to make his escape on a motorbike.

However it had left without him and he could not catch it, he said.

McGrath said he did not realise that the gun he was carrying was loaded.

He was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison by Judge Frank O'Donnell.

Today the three-judge CCA, with Ms Justice Fidelma Macken presiding and sitting with Mr Justice Liam McKechnie and Mr Justice John MacMenamin, noted that McGrath had been a model prisoner and had suffered a heart attack while in prison, decided that a more appropriate sentence was one of eight years in prison.