Arson sentence adjourned for psychiatric report

A JUDGE has adjourned sentencing of a Monaghan man found guilty of setting two properties he lived at on fire to allow time to receive an updated psychiatric report on him.

Judge John Aylmer made the decision after hearing that Thomas McConnell (45), of no fixed abode, had a long standing diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and was currently under the care of the psychiatric unit at Cloverhill Prison.

McConnell was found guilty of setting fire to a property he lived in at Drummond Radhairc, Carrickmacross in July 2020, and at another property he also lived in at Main Street, Carrickmacross in May 2021 following two separate trials at Monaghan Circuit Court.

Judge Aylmer said he was adjourning sentencing of McConnell to the April sessions of the court to give him time to receive an up-to-date psychiatric report on the defendant.

However he indicated that the defendant is facing very significant sentences and that he would have to consider if they would run consecutively.

He also said McConnell’s eventual release could only be done in a very controlled manner.

“I am very conscious of the level of risk for society,” Judge Aylmer said.

McConnell, who the court heard had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 21, was originally found guilty by a jury of setting fire to his local authority house in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, on July, 27, 2020, following a trial last November.

During that trial, in which McConnell had told gardai he was “hearing voices in my head”, he was accused of setting his home at Drummond Radhairc, Carrickmacross alight.

The defendant became agitated during that trial, shouting: “I am not a killer, I am not a killer of people ever, thank you.”

He faced a further trial at the most recent sittings of Monaghan Circuit Court for setting fire to another property he lived at on Main Street, Carrickmacross, on May 28, 2021.

A jury found him guilty of that fire following just two hours of deliberations.