The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgment on an appeal by a man serving a 14-year sentence for the manslaughter of three elderly women who died in a house fire on Inishbofin Island four years ago.
Alan Murphy (31), from Spelga Avenue, Newcastle, Co Down, was convicted in March 2001 of the manslaughter at Middlequarter, Inishbofin, on July 6th 1999 of Ms Eileen Coyne (81) and her two sisters, Ms Bridget McFadden (80) and Ms Margaret Concannon (72) and to setting fire to Ms Coyne's house on the same date, endangering the lives of the three sisters.
In April 2001, Judge Carl Moran, sitting at Galway Circuit Criminal Court, jailed Murphy for 14 years.
The judge said it was as horrific a case as ever came before the court, where the lives of three women were needlessly and uselessly lost and all because Murphy was made at being ejected from a pub on the island.
Murphy has appealed against his conviction and sentence to the CCA. In submissions yesterday, Mr Anthony Sammon SC, for Murphy, argued the trial judge erred in not admitting evidence from Murphy's father in relation to a phone call made to him by his son which, counsel argued, would have indciated Murphy's state of mind at the time.
Counsel accepted there was no issue of insanity in the case. However, he contended for a level of innocent intoxication, arguing that Murphy was affected through a combination of prescribed drugs and alcohol.
In opposing the appeal, counsel for the DPP argued there was no error in principle in either conviction or sentence.
Mr Justice Hardiman, presiding over the court and sitting with Mr Justice O'Sullivan and Mr Justice McKechnie, said the court would reserve judgment.