A judge yesterday told a man who has admitted pushing a burning rag into the letterbox of an occupied house in the Ballymagroarty area of Derry last year that "there is a strong possibility or probability that you are going to jail".
Judge Desmond Marrinan Q.C. directed his comments at father of three Daniel Callaghan (39), from Rathlin Drive, who has admitted carrying out the arson attack on the house at Harty Court on August 18, 2007.
Two other men who denied committing the
same offence were acquitted by direction at Derry Crown Court last month.
Judge Marrinan was told that the house owner, Ms. Jennifer McCann, was awakened at 4.30 a.m. by the noise of her dog barking. She walked to the landing from where she saw smoke and flames coming from the inside of her front door.
A prosecution barrister said Ms. McCann brought her ten years old son into her bedroom and called the Fire and Rescue Service. The barrister said that the mother and son, as well as their dog, had to be evacuated from the house by fire officers.
Judge Marrinan said that, while he accepted the arson attack occurred "in an episode of anger on the spur of the moment", Ms. Harty was a vulnerable woman who had been both upset and scared by the incident.
A defence barrister told the court that Callaghan had "an unusual and troubled childhood". His father, for whom he was the carer, died of cancer in 2005 and his brother "was the victim of a particularly notorious attack in this city and was left in a vegetative state".
The barrister said Callaghan had turned himself in to the police after he'd heard that two other men had been arrested for the incident.
Not on police radar
"The police had no leads to him,” he said. “He was not on the police radar and he presented himself to the police and admitted committing this crazily impulsive incident", he said.
Judge Marrinan released Callaghan on continuing bail for sentencing next Monday morning.
The full article contains 354 words and appears in Journal Friday DER Edition newspaper.
