A man who set fire to his friend's one-bedroom flat in a seven-storey apartment block early in the morning has been jailed for three years.
Robert Dawson (26), of Coultry Way, Ballymun, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to reckless endangerment at the block of flats on Coultry Road, Ballymun, on July 27th, 2003.
Detective Garda Shea McCartan told the prosecuting counsel, Mr Remy Farrell BL, that Dawson threw petrol at the door of the flat in which his friend was sleeping around 1.30 a.m.
Det Gda McCartan said Dawson came to the Garda station a few days later and confessed to having set fire to the flat. He said his friend, with whom he often consumed drugs and alcohol, had attacked him a few weeks previously, leaving him in need of hospitalisation.
Dawson also said he was extremely remorseful about his actions. He revealed he went to the gardaí after a conversation with his mother in which he told her that had anything happened to the occupants in the building as a result of the fire, he would have thrown himself off it.
The court heard Dawson was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol. He was also very depressed and had tried to hang himself recently.
Judge Desmond Hogan said Dawson's crime was extremely serious, especially considering the fact that the flat was occupied when he set fire to it. He suspended the last year of the sentence.