Joseph Cooney gets suspended sentence for arson

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

Joseph Cooney received a five-year prison sentence, suspended in full, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 24 November 2014. Judge Martin Nolan required him to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for the five years.

Cooney pleaded guilty to arson of a shed behind the Salmon Leap pub in Leixlip and a house on Main Street in the town. The offences occurred in the early hours of 25 November 2012. The proceedings were reported on 25 November 2014.

At an earlier sentence hearing on 10 November 2014, Judge Nolan had ordered Cooney to spend two weeks in jail. That custody order preceded the final suspended sentence.

The judge accepted a garda’s view that the arson was a one-off “act of madness”. He cited Cooney’s guilty plea, remorse, lack of previous convictions and favourable references as mitigation. He also accepted that Cooney was “a follower rather than a leader” and unlikely to come to garda attention again. However, he warned that “half of Leixlip” could have been burnt down and innocent people could have died.

The fires caused almost €400,000 in damage. Restoring the pub to its previous condition cost €200,000, while damage to the house was estimated at €160,000. Adjoining premises, including the Rye Gallery and the Little Yellow Wool Shop, also suffered thousands of euro worth of damage.