Man found drinking whiskey in garden chair at fire scene jailed for arson

By Natasha Reid

A 41-year-old man has been jailed for six years for burning down his brother’s home, arson of his own home and his car.

Gardai found him sitting on a garden chair drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels and watching the fire brigade put out the fires in the early hours of that morning.

The court heard that his brother’s house was completely destroyed and had a rebuild cost of €800,000 while his own home, which he co-owned with two other brothers, had a value close to a million euros and was uninsured at the time.

Robert Power, of Clannad, Malahide Road, Kinsealy in Dublin, was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, having pleaded guilty to the three counts of arson on the same plot of land at Clannad on November 23, 2025.

Garda Joseph Robinson told the court that Power was one of eight siblings, and it was in their original family home that the accused was living at the time. He co-owned it with two brothers, who did not live there. Another brother had built a timber house on the land, with a fifth brother also having made his home on that land.

One of Power’s brothers noticed flames coming from the accused man’s car, which was parked across the driveway at 4.30am that morning. By the time the fire brigade arrived, the car was completely engulfed, and the flames had spread to bushes.

The firefighters then noticed thick black smoke coming from the original family home. On investigation, they found multiple seats of the blaze. The fire was fully developed at the rear of the house, which the court heard was uninsured and recently valued at close to a million euros.

Gda Robinson made his way to the rear and found the accused sitting in a garden chair watching everyone in silence.

He told gardai that there was nobody in his house and nothing inside but his belongings, which he said his family wanted to take off him.

“He was drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels,” he recalled. “There was only a small amount left in the bottle.”

At that stage, another orange glow was noticed, and the defendant told gardai it was coming from a log cabin. The court heard that this was actually a two-story wooden structure prefabricated in Scandinavia. The rebuild cost after the fire was €800,000.

As the accused was being led to a Garda car, he passed his own burnt-out car.

“It killed me to do that,” he remarked. “That was my pride and joy. I loved that car.”

Gda Robinson handed in photos showing one of the gutted rooms in the accused man’s own house and also explained that gardai had ascertained that Power had bought eight fire logs and a bag of coal prior to the arson.

Under cross-examination by James Dwyer SC, defending, Gda Robinson agreed that Power had told gardai that he was annoyed about the hedge as he was a gardener.

He had also said he had been speaking to AI on his phone in the lead-up to it.

“I’m sorry about the firefighters, but at least no one was hurt,” he had remarked.

He was asked about damaging his family’s property.

“It’s harder to grow things than it is to build things. I’m not lost. They are,” he replied, but added that he had absolute remorse towards his family, whom he loved.

Mr Dwyer handed in a lengthy psychiatric report, which said that Power had decided to kill himself and burn his clothes so nobody would have them if he was gone.

The doctor said he had a probable personality disorder, was at a high risk of self-harm and a moderate risk of suicide. The report also diagnosed an emotionally unstable personality disorder, bipolar affective disorder and moderate depressive disorder with psychotic symptoms.

The psychiatrist said he was suffering from a mental disorder, which had precipitated his heavy drinking before the offence, and this was relevant to mitigation.

“This wasn’t motivated by malice, but precipitated by disordered thinking,” said Mr Dwyer.

Judge Martin Nolan said that it was an unusual case to say the least.

“If this had been done by a patently sane person, the sentence would be considerably higher,” he said.

He imposed an eight-year sentence but suspended the final two years on a number of conditions.