Donegal man jailed for burning Garda car

A man who set fire to a patrol car at Castlefin garda station has been jailed for three years.

Gary McGinley caused €17,500 worth of damage when he torched the car, which was parked just eight feet from the station.

Judge John Aylmer, passing sentence on Friday at Letterkenny Circuit Court, said the incident on January 21, 2023 was an ‘attack on the community’.

The 36-year-old, with an address at Emmett Park in Castlefin, pleaded guilty to a charge of arson having been identified on CCTV, which showed him dousing the vehicle, a 141 Hyundai i30, in petrol before setting it alight.

An off-duty Garda, who happened to be passing by the station, managed put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher.

“It was premeditated in the sense that he brought an accelerant to the scene and set fire to the vehicle,” Judge Aylmer said. “It appears this was motivated by some grudge or grievance that he bore to An Garda Siochana. He felt that gardai were somehow harassing him in relation to his offending.

“It was an attack on the gardai, which is in itself an aggravating feature and it also amounts to an attack on the community.”

The offence of arson carries a potential maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Judge Aylmer said the starting point for sentencing McGinley was a six-year prison sentence.

Judge Aylmer noted that McGinley came before him on a signed guilty plea. McGinley was highly intoxicated at the time having been on a drinking binge.

There was an element of a ‘cry for help’ in the incident, Judge Aylmer said.

“He felt that he would get help through incarceration and this is a theme selected in the reports that were opened to me,” Judge Aylmer said. “He felt that he needed assistance for various psychological difficulties which he has struggled with since his troubled youth.”

He said substance abuse has precipitated ‘much if not all of his psychological difficulties’. Judge Aylmer noted that McGinley ‘labours under a personality disorder which disposes himself to ant-social behaviour’ and the Probation Service deemed him to be at a high risk of reoffending.

McGinley engaged in a 28-day residential programme, but did not engage in aftercare.

Judge Aylmer reduced the sentence to one of three years in prison, with the final 12 months suspended for a period of 12 months. McGinley is to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for 12 months following his release and during that period must abstain completely from alcohol and prescribed drugs. He will also be placed under the supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months post-release.

Detective Garda Robin Doyle told Ms Fiona Crawford BL, counsel for the State, that McGinley was identified by gardai who viewed CCTV.

Armed with a search warrant, gardai arrived at the home of McGinley at Emmet Park. Members of the Armed Support United (ASU) gained entry by force after McGinley initially resisted the entry..

McGinley became aggressive before he was removed from the property and taken to Letterkenny garda station.

In an interview, McGinley admitted: ‘I just burned the patrol car. There was nothing more to it’.

McGinley bowed his head and did not look at the screen when the CCTV was played to him by detectives.

The total value of the car, including €7,500 for a fit-out of the vehicle, was €17,500 when it was torched.

McGinley, who has 18 previous convictions, was on bail at the time of the incident in relation to District Court matters.

Mr Peter Nolan BL, McGinley’s barrister, said his client is a settled traveller who described his childhood as ‘a war’. McGinley was suspended 12 times before leaving school at the age of 16. He worked ‘on and off’ as a labourer and described himself as being depressed since seven or eight years of age and feeling as if he didn’t fit in.

McGinley has dabbled in drugs, including magic mushrooms, ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis while he used heroin on one occasion. The court heard that McGinley previously attempted self harm.

Under the influence of drugs, McGinley believed that the Illuminati were messaging him and ‘he believed he was the special one’, Mr Nolan said. The incident, he said, represented ‘a cry for help’.

After he was sentenced, McGinley told Judge Aylmer, through his barrister, that he has ‘tried various doctors and health professionals’ but feels as if he ‘has not got adequate assistance’.

Mr Nolan said: “The only time he has got any attention was when he was incarcerated so there may be a silver lining to this unfortunate cloud he finds himself under.”