A man who set a patrol car on fire outside a local garda station causing €17,000 of damage has been jailed for three years.
Gary McGinley appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Donegal where he pleaded guilty to the attack at Castlefin Garda Station.
The 36-year-old was caught on CCTV carrying a can of petrol before dousing the Hyundai i30 car and watching it catch fire in the early hours of January 21st last.
An off-duty garda noticed the car on fire and managed to use a fire extinguisher to stop the blaze from spreading to the station just eight feet away.
When arrested later McGinley claimed he had been drinking heavily for a number of days and was suicidal and wanted to be arrested.
Passing sentence, Judge John Aylmer said McGinley appeared to be motivated by a grudge or grievance against gardaí. He said an aggravating factor was that McGinley brought an accelerant to the scene to set the garda car on fire.
The judge placed the case in the mid-range of such offences, noting the maximum sentence for arson was one of life imprisonment, but that before mitigation the case merited a sentence of six years in prison.
Detective Garda Robin Doyle gave details of the bizarre attack.
He told how after the attack, detectives trawled CCTV footage and spotted a man wearing Nike runners, an Adidas tracksuit and a grey coat carrying out the attack and recognised him as Gary McGinley.
Later that day at 5pm, a number of gardaí called to the home of McGinley which was just 400 yards from the garda station at Emmett Park.
The accused man aggressively resisted arrest but was eventually taken away to Letterkenny Garda Station for questioning.
Drinking vodka
McGinley immediately admitted carrying out the attack telling officers "I just burned the patrol car and there's nothing more to it."
The accused said he had been on vodka for a number of days and at the end of the interview he just bowed his head.
Detective Doyle told prosecution barrister Fiona Crawford that McGinley had 18 previous convictions for a range of incidents, including making threats to kill, theft, intoxication, burglary and assault causing harm.
He was out on bail from the local district court for another matter at the time he torched the patrol car.
Barrister for the accused, Peter Nolan, explained McGinley's thinking behind what he described as "a hare-brained scheme."
He said his client had been drinking for days and was off his head on vodka and said he was feeling suicidal.
McGinley had said he felt that if he did something like this he could get assistance by being arrested.
Detective Doyle agreed with Mr Nolan that McGinley has not come to the attention of Gardai since but there was no doubt he had his difficulties.
Sad upbringing
Mr Nolan said the accused had a very sad upbringing.
He was a settled Traveller and suffered because of this and had been suspended from school 12 times before leaving at the age of 16.
Mr Nolan outlined a number of medical reports on McGinley as well as a report from the Probation Services to give an overall picture of his client.
He said McGinley suffers from alcohol addictions, low moods and self-harming and wanted to plead guilty to be incarcerated to assess his life.
A Probation and Welfare report cited his drug and alcohol problems as well as his difficult family background and said there was a high likelihood that he would reoffend in the next 12 months.
Mr Nolan said that his actions were that of a man crying for help.
"The burning of the garda car, while reprehensible, was some form of cry for help, and unfortunately he chose that way of doing it," he added.
Attack on community
Passing sentence, Judge Aylmer said there must be a significant degree of deterrent for arson but more so when it involved an attack on gardaí but said this was also an attack on the community.
He said McGinley's guilty plea merited a one third reduction in sentence by order of the Court of Appeal but also took into account other factors such as that he was on a binge of alcohol and also that his actions were a "cry for help."
He also took into account psychological reports on the accused going back to his childhood and also his substance abuse and reduced the overall sentence of six years to one of four years.
He said he also wanted to encourage McGinley in his desire to be rehabilitated and suspend the final 12 months of that sentence, meaning he will serve a total of three years with merit for time already spent in custody.
His barrister, Mr Nolan, also requested that his client received medical help once he is jailed, with Judge Aylmer noting that all medical files should be sent to the prison governor.
