A Finglas man has been jailed for three years for setting his ex-girlfriend’s house on fire while she was asleep inside with their children.
John Paul McDonagh of St. Joseph’s Park, Dunsink claimed he only meant to frighten her.
The victim’s mother was asleep in the sitting room of her daughter’s house at Baskin Park, Stockhall Lane in the early hours of July 22nd 2014 when she heard John Paul McDonagh shouting outside and realised the front door was on fire.
She woke everyone up and luckily she was able to put the blaze out before it spread through the house.
Gardai found a red petrol can outside along with some smashed beer bottles and CCTV footage showed McDonagh setting it alight.
The court heard the 32-year-old had two children with the woman during a six year relationship that ended less than a year before the arson attack.
Following his arrest, he claimed he "only did it to frighten" her but in court today, Judge Martin Nolan told him he must have known he could have engulfed the whole house and could have ended up killing or injuring them.
He then jailed him for three years.
