Three Limerick teenagers began lengthy jail sentences yesterday for their parts in a horrific arson attack which left a young brother and sister scarred for life. Kathryn Hayesreports.
Jail sentences totalling 17 years were handed out at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday, where Judge Carroll Moran described the case as "particularly dreadful", given the agonising injuries suffered by the young victims. Gavin and Milly Murray-McNamara were aged four and six respectively when the car they were sitting in was petrol-bombed on September 10th, 2006.
The children's mother Sheila had earlier refused a lift to a number of youths, one of whom decided to burn her car in revenge.
The young children who were sitting in the back of the car suffered burns to more than 20 per cent of their bodies and were turned into "human fireballs" when the petrol bomb was thrown into the back of the car, Judge Moran was told.
The three teenagers jailed yesterday in connection with the attack were Jonathan O'Donoghue (18) and Robert Sheehan (17), both Pineview Gardens, Moyross, Limerick, and John Mitchell (18), Delmege Park, Moyross, Limerick.
O'Donoghue and Mitchell both pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to Milly and Gavin Murray-McNamara at Pineview Gardens on September 10th, 2006.
Sheehan pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of engaging in conduct, which created a substantial risk of death or serious injury to both children on the same date.
Evidence was given of how O'Donoghue filled a Lucozade bottle with petrol before igniting it and throwing it at the car with the two young children.
The court heard that Mitchell held the bottle for his co-accused while he filled it from a gallon drum of petrol and stuffed magazine paper in the top to act as a fuse. Sheehan acted as a "look-out", according to Garda evidence.
Before imposing sentence yesterday Judge Moran said that while he accepted that none of the accused knew the children were in the car at the time the "gratuitous nature of this offence is appalling".
"Throwing petrol bombs about is bad enough but to do so for such a trifling reason as not getting a lift elevates this offence to one of anarchic nihilism," he said.
Judge Moran said there were mitigating factors in the case, however, and "despite reaction from the back of the court room" these were matters he had to mention.
He said the three defendants' guilty pleas relieved the Murray family of the "trauma" of a trial and saved Sheila Murray from being cross-examined.
Judge Moran added, however, that had it not been for their admissions to gardaí and the fact they did not know the children were in the car and their immature ages, they would be facing sentences of 12 to 14 years in jail.
Judge Moran described O'Donoghue as the "main mover" in the offence and sentenced him to eight years in prison with the final two years suspended.
Mitchell received a seven-year sentence with the last two years suspended and Sheehan, who is still considered a minor, has been sentenced to two years' detention and bound to the peace for four years.
Niall McNamara, the children's father, had to be escorted from the court by a female garda during the proceedings when he became agitated and started to sigh loudly.