A 57-year-old Chinese national has been jailed for nine years over a massive arson attack in Longford, which caused €3.5 million in damage.
Guo Zhong Chen of Belvedere Terrance, Mullingar was arrested and charged with starting a fire at Oyama Sushi Restaurant on the 28th of July 2024.
Local hairdresser Pauline Belton and owner of Grafters Hair Company, which was destroyed in the blaze, says she is satisfied with the sentence today.
Ms Belton ran the salon on Grafton Court for 24 years before extensive damage to the property on the night of the fire forced her to shut down permanently.
In her victim impact statement, she explained the incident was a "double tragedy" for her as her husband died shortly before the fire.
Ms Belton incurred losses of a total of €110,000 and has since been unable to reopen her business in Longford.
She's been giving her reaction:
She says today's sentence brings a sense of closure:
After being served with a Book of Evidence consisting of 50 witness statements and 60 hours of CCTV footage, Mr Chen appeared before Longford Circuit Court today for sentencing.
The final victim impact statement was read to Judge Kenneth Connolly on behalf of tattoo artist Ruslan Vacika, the owner of one of the 19 businesses affected in the blaze.
In his statement, Mr Vacika claimed the events of July 28th was the "most frightening and traumatic experience" of his life.
He outlined the total loss to his business, Black Pearl Tattoo Studio, was €100,000, with an additional €50,000 spent on renovating his new premises.
Mr Vacika also stated he lost a personal collection of 18 years as a result of the fire, which he said had "significant financial and sentimental value."
He added that everything he "had worked so hard to build over the past ten years," was "destroyed" as a direct consequence of the fire, and that his reputation and relationships with clients was "put at risk."
Mr Vacika also revealed he and his wife had been planning to apply for a mortgage, and due to the significant costs incurred and losses to his business, those plans 'no longer seem achievable.'
The court also heard the owner of the Grafton Court complex, Mr Dermot Smith, lost a total of over €1,600,000 in damage and loss of rent.
A letter of apology on behalf of Mr Chen was read to Judge Kenneth Connolly, in which he apologised to the affected business-owners, Gardaí, the fire and court service, over what he described as his "incredibly stupid" actions.
Outlining his motivation for setting the fire at the premises of his former business partner, he wrote, "I wanted to give her a fright, to scare her. That was my sole intention of setting the fire."
Representing Mr Chen, Senior Counsel Michael O'Higgins outlined mitigation factors in his case, saying the Chinese national spent his childhood and teenage years providing for his family and working on a farm in rural China, that he did not go to school and is illiterate.
He explained that to this day, Mr Chen feels "deeply inadequate and ashamed that he does not have those basic communication skills."
In relation to the arson attack, Barrister O'Higgins said the fire was "calculated," but due to the grease trap and gas cannisters which were caught in the fire and acted as an accelerant, the nature of the damage "extended far beyond what the defendant wanted to achieve."
Delivering his verdict, Judge Kenneth Connolly took into account Mr Chen's difficult upbringing, his strong work history, and his 'excellent' behaviour at Castlerea prison.
The Judge also acknowledged Mr Chen's wife and stepson in China as 'secondary victims' of the crime, as they can no longer rely on a maintenance payment of €500 from Mr Chen every month.
Judge Kenneth Connolly however could not exclude CCTV evidence which he said made Mr Chen's attack 'unequivocally willful and deliberate,' and that he was 'utterly negligent' during the incident, saying that 'one might expect that when one sets a fire, there's a reasonable prospect of it spreading.'
He also stressed the 'dreadful and colossal losses' to local businesses as a result.
Mr Chen was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison, suspending the final 18 months - including a requirement to enter a bond of a sum of 200 euro to the court, and to submit himself to the supervision of the probation service.
