Extra jail time for arsonists who set car alight after ramming into building as families slept upstairs

Ryan Dunne

Three men received unduly lenient prison sentences for their “targeted” and “premeditated” arson attack in which a car was doused in fuel and rammed into a tanning salon, causing an enormous fire while families slept in the apartments overhead, a court has ruled.

At the Court of Appeal on Thursday, Keith McCormack Smith (24) had his four-year sentence increased to seven years; Jason Ryle (26) had his three-and-a-half-year sentence increased to six years; and PJ Lyons (21) had his three-and-a-half-year sentence increased to four-and-a-half years.

McCormack Smith – also known as Keith McCormick and Keith McCormick-Smith – of Riverview, Church Road, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15, pleaded guilty to arson at Tip Top Tanning Studio, Tullow Street, Carlow on May 17th, 2022, and arson to a Toyota car on the same date and at the same location.

He also pleaded guilty to various other charges, including unlawful use of a motor vehicle, unlawful carriage in a motor vehicle and theft between May 1st and May 17th, 2022.

Judge Eugene O’Kelly sentenced McCormack Smith to six years with the final two years suspended at Carlow Circuit Court on July 31st, 2024.

Ryle, of Raithin, Mullingar, Westmeath and Lyons, of Cedarbrook Walk, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10, also pleaded guilty to arson arising out of the same incident.

Ryle and Lyons further pleaded guilty to a number of other charges, including unlawful use of a motor vehicle, attempted theft and theft on various dates in May 2022.

Ryle was sentenced to five and a half years' imprisonment with the final two years suspended, while Lyons was also handed a sentence of five and a half years with the final two years suspended for a period of two years and three months.

Appealing the leniency of these sentences in April last, Niall Storan BL, for the DPP, said the incident in Carlow occurred shortly before 5am on May 17th, 2022, when a stolen Toyota Avensis was rammed into a building on Tullow Street in Carlow and set alight, causing the building to catch fire.

Mr Storan said the ground floor of the building operated as a tanning salon during the day, and the upper levels were residential apartments. He said McCormack Smith was driving the Toyota car while PJ Lyons recorded what was happening on his phone, and Ryle was also present.

Ryle had a bottle containing accelerant in his hand, which he then poured onto the car while McCormack Smith got out and the three fled the scene.

A garda investigation revealed that multiple vehicles had been stolen in different locations and were involved in the commission of various offences, which ultimately led to the arson at the tanning salon.

The offenders were ultimately identified through social media content from a TikTok account.

Mr Storan told the Court of Appeal in April that it was “difficult to conceive of a more serious arson offence” than this one, which was both “targeted” and “premeditated” to cause “an enormous fire”.

He argued the headline sentence of eight years was too low, and the sentences imposed did not adequately reflect the gravity of the offence. The lawyer suggested the judge had misplaced the offending at the mid-range on the scale of gravity.

Mr Storan also said insufficient weight was given to the many aggravating factors, including the fact that the apartments over the premises were occupied by families who were sleeping at the time, the premeditation involved, the use of an accelerant and the fact that the respondents were on bail.

In delivering judgement on Thursday, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said that the arson was a very serious offence, with obvious aggravating factors including the planning involved, the use of a getaway vehicle, the attack on a business premises, the fact that residential apartments needed to be evacuated, and the fact that each man had previous convictions and was on bail at the time.

She said that the court agreed with the DPP that the sentencing judge reduced the sentences by too much, with the sentences ultimately imposed not meeting the gravity of the offending.

Ruling that the sentences were unduly lenient, Ms Justice Kennedy said that the court would quash the sentences and move on to resentencing the three men.

She said that the appropriate headline sentence for McCormack Smith was ten years for the arson offence, which was reduced to eight years with the final year suspended.

In the case of Ryle, the headline sentence set was nine and a half years, reduced to seven years with the final year suspended.

And in the case of Lyons, Ms Justice Kennedy fixed the headline sentence at nine years, reduced to six and a half years with the final two years suspended.