Man jailed for setting fire to house while a woman and two young children were inside

By Natasha Reid and Eimear Dodd

A man who set fire to a house while a woman and her two young children were inside has been jailed for 16 months.

One of the children was wounded by broken glass while trying to escape from a back window that David Fannin (29) had smashed before starting the fire.

Fannin, of Edenmore Avenue, Coolock, Dublin, told gardai he had been instructed to carry out the arson by another man, to whom he owed money.

The court heard his co-accused, who has since fled the country, is the ex-partner of the injured party.

During the sentence hearing, Judge Martin Nolan noted: “This family could have been incinerated if things had gone wrong.”

Fannin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to carrying out the arson at the house in Ballymun and to intentionally damaging the back door of the house on September 24, 2020.

After hearing facts on Monday, the judge adjourned the case to today for finalisation.

Judge Nolan said “arson is very serious, once a fire starts no one knows where it is going to end”.

He said the court inferred from the evidence that Fannin was “inveigled” by the other man, who was the “driving force”, to take part.

The judge said there was “some level of coercion” involved in Fannin’s criminal behaviour that night, but the defendant “knew what he was doing was wrong”.

“Even though he has problems, he must have known what he was doing was very dangerous for occupants of the house,” the judge said.

Judge Nolan noted the mitigation, Fannin’s personal circumstances and the contents of a psychological report.

He said the court could not agree to the defence’s application to impose a suspended sentence as “there must be some level of punishment for what he did”.

Judge Nolan imposed a four-year prison sentence, suspending the final 32 months on strict conditions.

He said this type of arson is “insidious and very dangerous to people”.

“I’ve no doubt he was the lesser of the two parties, but he must suffer some imprisonment for what he did. He must have known what he did was wrong,” the judge said.

Garda Seán Clyde previously told the court that the woman, who was at home with her four-and-a-half-year-old and 18-month-old children, contacted gardai to say a man had shattered a window at the back of her house.

A second man then began banging at the patio doors.

She ran from the kitchen in fear, locked herself into an upstairs bedroom and rang the emergency services.

She identified her ex-partner as the second man, but didn’t know who the first man was.

Later on the same night, she reported that the porch to the front of her home and her car in her driveway were alight.

When gardaí arrived, the fire was too much for their patrol fire extinguishers.

The woman and her young children had escaped through the back garden and were out on the road.

The woman was crying, and her four-year-old was bleeding from the soles of her feet from broken glass.

Judge Nolan asked which man had doused the front porch.

“This defendant,” replied the garda.

Garda Clyde later stopped Fannin in a car, where he noticed a strong smell of accelerant and the nozzle of a jerry can. A CCTV camera was found under a seat.

Fannin has two previous convictions for drugs offences.

The court heard there was extensive damage to the rear kitchen windows and patio doors, which were irreparable.

Under cross examination by Derek Cooney BL, defending, Gda Clyde agreed that from the very get go, gardai knew they were looking for the woman’s ex-partner.

Mr Cooney said that his client had owed this person money, was under pressure and was acting on the direction of the other man, who has evaded justice and fled the jurisdiction.

He said Fannin was someone who was easily led and who was in fear at the time.

“It’s understood he was at home and a knock came to the door and he was told, ‘You’re doing this’,” defence counsel said.

The court heard that Fannin, who had lost his father recently and is caring for his brother, had brought €5,000 in compensation to court.