Blackrock pensioner died from burns after coat caught fire on electric heater

An inquest heard yesterday that a local pensioner died after suffering burns to more than half his body when his coat caught fire from an electric heater.

Eoghan Carroll (74) died at the burns unit in St James’s Hospital on May 12 last year, four days after he became engulfed in flames at his home at Sandy Lane in Blackrock

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard from Mr Carroll’s neighbour Sandra Meehan that she was walking down the lane toward his house on May 9 when she saw a man “completely on fire” walk out from behind a hedge.

“He seemed completely on fire from head to toe. His whole head was on fire. It wasn’t like smoking, it was complete flames and I could not make out who it was at all,” she said.

Ms Meehan rushed to a neighbour’s house to get help and others came to Mr Carroll’s aid. When the flames were out, Mr Carroll was “very lucid”, said Ms Meehan. He was still walking and said that the back of his coat had caught fire. “He asked someone to cover him at the back and he said: ‘I’m not doing well lately’,” she told the court.

The dead man’s nephew Niall Carroll was on the scene within minutes, arriving as paramedics tended to his uncle. He ran down to check the house and walked into the kitchen. “You could smell that there had been a fire,” he said. He told the fire brigade, who had arrived and were preparing their hoses to put out the blaze, that there was “no need”.

Mr Meehan was initially taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda before being transferred to the burns unit at St James’s Hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Scenes investigator Garda Aidan Hanlon said that when he examined the house he could see no seat of the fire and it appeared that Mr Carroll himself had sustained the majority of the fire damage. No traces of accelerant were found. When the power was turned back on, the electric heater in the kitchen lit up, the court heard. Gda Hanlon said that in his opinion Mr Carroll received his injuries from this electric fire.

At post-mortem, the pathologist found that he had suffered very severe full thickness burns on 39 per cent of his body and partial thickness burns on another 12 per cent. Death was due to multi-organ failure as a result of severe burns.

Deputy coroner Maria Colbert returned a verdict of accidental death.

Source: Irish Independent

Pensioner sentenced to five-year jail sentence over sex invitation to local schoolgirls

Peter Clarke

A local pensioner who is said to be unable to control his behaviour after suffering damage to the frontal lobe of his brain has received a five-year jail sentence for inviting two schoolgirls to take part in a sexual act with him.

Peter Clarke (69) of O’Neill Street, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan and formerly of Tully, Corcreaghy, Louth Village, was found guilty of two counts of sexual exploitation after a trial at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court last September.

Clarke had denied inviting the then first-year students to participate in a sexual act at a location in Dundalk on September 9th, 2011.

Judge Rory MacCabe yesterday sitting at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin said Clarke was at a high risk of similar offending. He imposed a five-year prison sentence to begin from the date of conviction on September 24th last.

He suspended the final three years for three years on condition Clarke comply with all directions of the Probation Services.

The trial had heard the two 12-year-old girls were sitting outside a café during a break from school when Clarke approached them.

Clarke approached the girls and made a “colloquial” invitation to sexual activity after placing a €5 note on the table. He walked away but came back and repeated the invitation before driving off in a green Jaguar car, the court was told.

Gardaí tracked him down by tracing the distinctive car and Clarke said he couldn’t remember making the propositions but admitted he could have.

The court heard Clarke had 15 previous convictions including three for sexual assault.

He is currently serving two concurrent five-year prison sentences in the Midlands Prison for two sexual assaults committed on May 12th and September 10th, 2011. He also has four convictions for public indecency for offences committed in April 2011, October 2007 and on February 2nd, 2007. His third conviction for sexual assault was committed on February 2nd, 2007.

Roderick O’Hanlon, defending, told the court his client was involved in a significant road traffic incident 20 years ago and suffered damage to his frontal lobe.

He said he had suffered brain atrophy and operated on a “mildly mentally handicapped basis”.

“He has an inability to properly control himself as regards sexual matters, particularly, it would appear, with younger females,” Mr O’Hanlon said.

This week’s Dundalk Democrat

The front page of this week’s Dundalk Democrat

The headlines in this week’s Dundalk Democrat include the details of the Garda search on homes as the investigation into the murder of Garda Adrian Donohoe continues, the opening of eBay in Dundalk, Simon Fagan’s lotto success and news of a pensioner who was punched in the face outside the Redeemer Church.