Arsonist was trying to impress girl

The threat of a lengthy prison sentence hangs over a young man who set fire to a barn containing 300 bales of hay – at the height of a national fodder crisis – in an effort to impress a girl.

Matthew Morrin (23) was aged 18 when he set fire to his neighbour’s barn at Castlecreevy, Corrandulla, on August 16, 2018, after entering into a pact with the then 16-year-old girl and a group of other youths to take the blame for the blaze.

He pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last July to the offence of arson, while the girl, who was underage at the time and who also admitted setting the fire, was dealt with under the Garda Juvenile Liaison Officer Scheme.

Sentencing in Morrin’s case was adjourned at the time by Judge Rory McCabe who directed the preparation of probation, psychiatric and psychological reports on the accused prior to sentence taking place.  He also directed a victim impact statement be taken from the injured party.

At last week’s sentence hearing, Garda Patricia Sloyan of Monivea Garda Station gave evidence the shed was set alight at 4p.m. and was completely destroyed in the blaze. It had contained 300 bales of hay and an old tractor.

Several youths were seen running from the scene.  Morrin and the girl later admitted starting the fire together.

Morrin told Garda Sloyan at the time he didn’t know why he did it, but she believed the youths were regularly taking ‘substances’ in the barn and he had entered into a pact to take the blame for the fire to impress the girl.

She said Morrin’s family moved to Mayo before this incident to get him away from the youths he had been associating with, but he kept getting the bus back to Corrandulla to see them and it was on one of those trips the offence occurred.

She agreed with prosecuting barrister, Geri Silke, that Morrin was easily led and had a mild mental disability. She described the girl and Morrin as being “a bad mix” when they got together with the others.

The group regularly used the barn as a place to hang out, take alcohol and drugs and listen to music, the court heard.

The owner of the barn, Declan Fahy, who lives in Dubai, said in his victim impact statement to the court that he inherited the farm from his father in 2015 and rented the land and the barn to a local farmer.

Fahy said he had fond memories of helping his father build the barn in the mid-1980’s, when times were tough and money tight.  Everything he and his father proudly achieved went up in smoke in 30 minutes, he said.

He estimated the cost of building a new barn at €20,000 and said he suffered financial loss since 2018 as there was no barn to rent out anymore.

Garda Sloyan confirmed Morrin had four convictions committed since this offence for breaching Covid movement regulations, being drunk in public, breaching the peace and obstructing a Garda.

Referring to the various reports before the court, Judge Brian O’Callaghan said any mental difficulties Morrin had could not excuse him because he knew what he was doing was wrong.

He set the headline sentence at five years before granting a 50% reduction, explaining that he was treating Morrin as having come before his court on a signed plea of guilty from the District Court.

The judge said that having viewed the reports which outlined the positive steps Morrin was now taking with the support of his family and services, he decided to suspend the remaining two-and-a-half year sentence in its entirety, on condition Morrin enter into a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for three years, remain under the supervision of the probation service for two years, abstain from alcohol and illicit drugs, and continue under the care of the intellectual disability and mental health services.