A 38-year-old man who set fire to a homeless hostel last year, leaving a 22-year-old mother-of-two with catastrophic injuries, has been jailed for nine and a half years.
Keith Riggs, from Deanstown Avenue, Finglas in Dublin pleaded guilty to two counts of arson and one count of endangerment at the hostel on Little Green Street on 26 March last year.
It cost Dublin City Council almost €3 million to repair the hostel and rehouse the residents.
The Depaul Hostel provided accommodation for up to 100 people.
There were ten people at the facility when the fire happened.
Four were taken to hospital, and Ms O'Brien was left with catastrophic and life-limiting injuries.
The 22-year-old mother of two young children is now blind and cannot breathe without assistance. She fell unconscious as she tried to escape the fire.
CCTV played to the court showed Riggs coming out of a ground floor toilet, followed by an orange flash and a plume of dense dark smoke.
He ran down the stairwell and called 999, claiming he was trapped at the top even though he was outside.
The 38-year-old has a long history of mental health issues and developed psychosis in his 20s.
He turned himself into gardaí, claiming he was suicidal.
It cost Dublin City Council €2.8m to repair the hostel and rehouse the residents, a very large cost the judge said, when homeless figures are at record numbers.
Judge Dara Hayes said Ms O'Brien was a "22-year-old woman with her life in front of her" that had been irrevocably changed by the "appalling" fire.
She remains in intensive care under specialist medical teams from the Mater Hospital and from Boston.
By making the 999 call, he said, Riggs had demonstrated an understanding of the potential consequences of his action.
He jailed him for nine and a half years.
