Teenager jailed for throwing petrol bombs into building designated for asylum seekers

By Isabel Hayes

A teenager who threw petrol bombs into a building that had been earmarked for asylum seekers, causing €28,000 worth of damage, has been jailed for five years.

Andy Donohue (19) “came under the influence of some extremely racist people”, his defence counsel told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

CCTV footage played in court showed Donohue, then aged 18, approaching the building close to 11pm in May last year with a fiery object in his hand, before he smashed the glass door repeatedly with a hammer, shoved the lit object and a number of other firebombs through the broken glass and then added accelerant to fan the flames.

A female security guard who was inside the building at the time witnessed the incident on security cameras and fled the building through a back door, Detective Garda Eoin Monahan told Kieran Kelly BL, prosecuting.

However because she left her phone and other personal belongings inside, fire fighters dealing with the blaze initially feared for her safety before she was located safe and uninjured.

Donohue, with an address at Citywest View, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to one count of arson at St John’s House, High Street, Tallaght on May 24 last year. He has no previous convictions and has been in custody since. It is an offence that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Damage caused to the building, which had been earmarked for use by the International Protection Office for immigrants, amounted to €28,000, the court heard. No one was injured in the fire.

Donohue was identified as the culprit from CCTV footage of the incident and was arrested shortly afterwards.

Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, said his client had a challenging childhood and was exposed to neglect and poverty.

Despite this, he did extremely well in school up until the age of 16, and was also accomplished in martial arts. “He then came under the influence of some extremely racist people,” Mr Ó Lideadha said, adding Donohue started spending hours in his bedroom around this time.

The court heard that someone close to Donohue was the victim of a serious assault and as a result, “this racist person under whose influence he was started suggesting to him that other people would be at risk”, the court heard.

Donohue started associating this assault “with propaganda of a racist kind”, defence counsel said.

A testimonial from a takeaway owner, who briefly employed Donohue and who is an immigrant himself, expressed surprise at the offence and stated that Donohue always got on well with people of all nationalities while working in his shop.

Defence counsel said Donohue is now ashamed of what he did and has “completely changed his attitude”. He is studying for his Leaving Certificate while in custody.

Handing down sentence, Judge Martin Nolan said Donohue was “inspired by racism and some political motive” when he decided to petrol bomb the building. He noted Donohue was very young when he committed this offence and was “led astray to some degree”.

He noted arson is a “very, very serious crime”.

“What makes it more serious is the motivation in this case,” the judge said.

He set a headline sentence of 10 years, which he reduced to six years taking mitigation into account.

He suspended the final year of the sentence on a number of conditions and backdated the sentence to when Donohue went into custody.

After the sentence was handed down, Donohue shouted: “I’ll have grown a few more hairs on my chest by then” as his supporters shouted encouragement and some family members shed tears.