Dean Boland receives six-year arson sentence after manslaughter conviction quashed

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Dean Boland was re-sentenced to six years in prison for arson after the Court of Appeal quashed his manslaughter conviction. The proceedings were reported on December 4, 2025.

A Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury convicted Boland in December 2022 of unlawful killing, damaging property by arson and burglary at Oaklands Terrace, Terenure, on August 21, 2018. He had pleaded not guilty to the offences. He was originally sentenced to eight years in prison.

Boland broke into a downstairs apartment, stole a rucksack and set fire to the property. Ohari Viera and two other men escaped from an upstairs apartment, but Mr Viera returned to the building for an unknown reason and did not come back out.

At the appeal hearing, Boland’s counsel argued that Mr Viera’s decision to return broke the chain of causation. Counsel for the State argued that causation was a matter for the jury and that the fire was the substantial cause of death. Trial judge Elma Sheahan had refused an application to withdraw the case from the jury.

The Court of Appeal delivered its judgment allowing Boland’s appeal on October 7, 2025.