A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to eight years in jail after he was convicted of an arson attack which caused €2.7 million worth of damage to a historic part of Skibbereen in the biggest fire seen in the west Cork town.
Vladamir Raspopov, a Moldovan with an address at North Quay Place, Popes Quay, Cork, had denied committing arson at the Church Restaurant, Bridge Street, Skibbereen, on April 9th, 2006, when he went on trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court last month.
Raspopov also denied four other charges of committing arson at 61-62 Bridge Street, the Masonic Hall, Mardyke Street, the social welfare offices at the Masonic Hall and 64 Bridge Street. But a jury found him guilty of all five offences. Yesterday, Judge Con Murphy sentenced Raspopov to eight years, saying he accepted the attack was random in the sense that he didn't deliberately target the five premises but it was a serious offence which "effectively destroyed a historic part of Skibbereen beyond recall".
"For the victims, the events were life changing with huge personal costs for the individual victims - not just financially but also psychologically . . . there is a huge burden, both financially and psychologically to be borne by the victims," said Judge Murphy.
The court had heard a summary of the case from Det Sgt Maurice Shanley who said the arson attack had caused €1.6 million worth of damage to the historic Church Restaurant which had not reopened since the fire because of the huge cost of trying to repair the building.
Some 35 people had been employed in the restaurant but they had since gone elsewhere for employment, said Det Sgt Shanley. The court also heard the building had been under-insured and the full repair costs could not be met by the insurance.
Kenneallys Hardware store at 61/62 Bridge Street, which had been in business for over 100 years, suffered €656,000 worth of damage and had not reopened as the owners no longer had the energy to reopen after the huge trauma caused by the blaze, said Det Sgt Shanley.
The Masonic Hall suffered €300,000 worth of damage, Kathleen Collins's clothes shop at 64 Bridge Street had suffered €110,000 worth of damage and €32,000 worth of damage was caused to the social welfare offices.
Det Sgt Shanley explained that Raspopov had come to Skibbereen by bus from Cork city with another man, Alex Mutanov, but they had a row in the street and Raspopov had bitten a car aerial and attempted to bite a local man, Donal O'Donovan.
A number of witnesses saw him go into a yard at the back of the Church Restaurant and gardaí and fire officers later discovered that the valves on eight propane cylinders had been opened and the gas set alight, triggering the huge blaze.
Raspopov's barrister, Tim O'Leary, said his client had come to Ireland first in 2001.
He had no previous convictions in either Ireland or Moldova.
Mr O'Leary said while he wasn't offering it as an excuse, the fact that Raspopov was drunk on the day did provide a context for his actions and he was unlikely to reoffend given the "unusual, random and bizarre events" which led to his first appearance before the courts.
Mr O'Leary asked the judge to be as lenient as possible and said his client has been in custody since the day of the fire on April 9th, 2006, when he was arrested for public order offences.
Judge Murphy backdated the sentence to take account of this.
