A fireman with Kerry County Council has received a suspended seven-month prison sentence for starting a fire he was paid to put out on State-owned land on Easter Monday 2020.
Thirty-seven-year-old David Ahern, a member of the Killorglin fire service, had contested the charge of criminal damage by arson in an area of bogland off the main Ring of Kerry road.
Ahern, of St James Gardens Killorglin, had denied he committed arson in that he damaged by fire property, namely gorseland, at Cromane Upper in Killorglin on 13 April 2020.
He had also denied that he dishonestly, by deception, induced the fire service department of Kerry County Council to pay him the sum of €151.04 for attending a fire at Cromane Upper to make a gain for himself contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice Act 2001.
He was convicted of the arson charge, but acquitted of the deception charge in December at the sitting of Cahersiveen District Court.
At his sentencing hearing today in Tralee, his solicitor Brendan Ahern said his client maintained his innocence. The solicitor asked that the ultimate sanction not be applied, given David Ahern had no previous conviction.
There had been a lot of publicity and this had been difficult for his client and his family, Brendan Ahern said.
The solicitor also said there had been no major damage in terms of financial loss and this was "not private property".
David Ahern had been suspended from the fire service since he was charged with the offence, and while he respected the decision of the court "he maintains his innocence," the solicitor said.
Judge David Waters said he was "more than satisfied" that David Ahern was guilty of the offence he was convicted of. The main mitigating factor was his lack of previous convictions, given his age, the judge said.
There was some intention to make a gain for himself, Judge Waters said, and he referred to the "cynical nature of the crime". There was "a serious breach of trust" and it was "a serious matter," Judge Waters said.
However, he said he would suspend the sentence on David Ahern's own bond of €600.
The court in Cahersiveen in December heard how David Ahern was one of a crew of nine who attended the scene to put out the fire that day. Around 1.5 acres of State-owned land was burnt.
The case took several hours and heard from a number of witnesses, recordings of 999 calls and CCTV camera stills from a private residence at Cromane Upper.
Chief Fire Officer in Kerry, Andrew McAndrew Macilwraith, called by the prosecution, said the payroll cost of dealing with the fire amounted to €1,500. There was double time for bank holidays for firemen and Ahern had been paid €151.04, Mr Macilwraith outlined.
Garda Sergeant Adrian Brennan told how weather conditions had been very dry for the previous number of weeks. There had been a number of gorsefires in the area that Spring, the Sergeant said. The burnt land was owned by the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, surrounded by a large area of commonage.
The court also heard a recording of a 999 call to the fire service made by Declan Ward, one of four people at the nearby private residence, wishing to report someone in a car setting fire, and the vehicle speeding off. A second call to report the fire, made by a woman, had also been logged.
Eileen Langston said she was looking out the window after lunch and a black car came and parked in a dangerous position and someone got out and went over to the ditch, and she asked herself if he was setting fire to the gorse.
She was "wary of gorse fires " because there had been a lot of them, she told Brendan Ahern under cross examination.
"I wondered what he was up to and I ran and got the binoculars," she said.
In a memo of a garda interview, read to the court, David Ahern said he had been driving his partner's car, a black Passat, and was on his way to Glenbeigh when he realised he had no phone and no cigarettes and had stopped by the side of the road to search for them but had not got out of his car.
He was returning to collect the items when his pager went off and he collected them and went to the fire station.
Kerry County Council had been asked to give a victim impact statement but did not, the court in Tralee was told.
They were dealing internally with the matter. A Government Department, not the council, was the registered owner of the land, the court was told.
