Co Armagh man who set fire to Halifax bank building in 'moment of madness' is given three year jail sentence
A ‘hard working’ Co. Armagh man who snapped and caused millions of pounds worth of damage when he set fire to a bank building in a revenge attack was handed a three year prison sentence today.
Ordering Patrick Brennan to serve 12 months in jail and the rest under supervised licence conditions, Judge Donna McColgan KC told the 54-year-old that given the level of damage and the significant impact on the Halifax Bank, its employees and the wider community given the branch’s ultimate closure, she had to impose an immediate custodial sentence.
The Craigavon Crown Court judge told Brennan however that given his mental health issues and based on submissions from defence KC Michael Chambers “to whom you ought to be eternally grateful,” she was imposing the “uneven split” between custody and licence.
At an earlier hearing Brennan, from Ballyoran Park in Portadown, entered guilty pleas to arson of a bank building belonging to Halifax and to possessing articles with intent to cause damage, namely a two foot sledge hammer and a petrol canister, on 6 February this year.
Summarising the facts of the case during her sentencing remarks today, Judge McColgan told the court it was around 8.30pm that evening when a woman walking in Portadown town centre saw what turned out to be the defendant standing outside the Halifax branch.
She saw him “pouring liquid from a red container into the Halifax building through a broken window” and he then proceeded to pour more liquid onto the edge of the windows “and set it alight.”
“The fire spread quickly and the police and NIFRS were called and on arrival they found that the interior of the building was ablaze,” said the judge.
Brennan had remained at the scene, sitting on the ground with a pair of gloves and the sledgehammer nearby and when the witness pointed him out he was arrested.
Interviewed the following day Brennan made full admissions to starting the fire and told police there had been a fire at his home on the Corcrain estate in April 2022 when a neighbour accidentally put hot ashes in a bin which then caught fire and the blaze spread to his home, damaging the garage and two bedrooms.
While the neighbour’s insurance policy had paid out for the external damage his house insurance policy, which was with Halifax, had not paid out.
The judge outlined how Brennan told detectives he had looked out that morning and saw bins lined up which had the numbers 666 on them and from the journal he kept, he also realised it had been 666 days since the fire which wrecked his home.
Having gone to two garages for petrol, he loaded the canisters, the sledge hammer and the gloves into a trolley, told his partner he was going for a walk and then proceeded to the Halifax building.
Brennan claimed he intentionally decided to do it late in the evening as he believed that by then, the building would be empty and that he stayed at the scene as he “wanted to be arrested and to expose the Halifax.”
Initially, the Halifax estimated it would cost £1.2million to fix the damage and reopen the branch but a further estimate added another million to the cost and although they had an insurance policy with Zurich, the excess on it was £2.5million so it was decided not to rebuild.
There was other costs however including £80,000 to open a pod in a local shopping centre and employee remuneration due to staff have to move branches was a total of £240,000.
Judge McColgan told the court that in the submissions of PS counsel Joseph Murphy, there were multiple aggravating features including the amount of damage caused, the widespread impact of it and that the fire “would be regarded as a revenge attack.”
In mitigation Mr Chambers had emphasised Brennan’s exemplary work record, completely clear criminal record, his ongoing mental health issues which were exacerbated by the fire at his home and that it was a “bizarre” and out of character case, committed by a hard working middle aged man “in a moment of madness.”
Turning to sentencing principles, Judge McColgan highlighted that all arson cases including simple arson were always serious and carried with it a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
“It has always been recognised the inherent dangers if setting fire to a building,” said the judge adding that while in this case Brennan may well have waited until the building was likely to have been empty, there would have been danger caused to the NIFRS and any other emergency services who responded.
She revealed that in the pre-sentence report from probation, Brennan told the author of the report he had stood outside his home, crying at the poor standard of the rebuild and thought it was a case of either setting himself on fire or the bank building.