'Eco warrior' guilty of €3m blaze protest at Jesuit HQ
Noah Bunn, who was yesterday found guilty of arson at the Jesuit HQ in Dublin
A "passionate environmentalist" caused damage totalling €3m in an arson attack on the Irish headquarters of the Jesuit Order because he believed they were not using their moral authority to alert the world to the dangers of climate change.
Noah Bunn (26), a former clerical employee of the Jesuits and member of environmental group, Friends of the Earth, set the fire on Good Friday last and had his sentence adjourned.
Bunn, who has a law degree from the University of Wales and is from Northampton, England, pleaded guilty to arson at Eglington Road, Donnybrook, on April 6, 2007. Judge Katherine Delahunt adjourned his sentence to allow a psychiatric report be prepared.
Garda Brian Flannery told the court that after extinguishing the blaze at the building, Dublin Fire Brigade alerted gardai to suspicions that the fire had been started deliberately.
Gardai carried out a technical examination of the scene and spoke to the sole resident, a Korean priest, who told them he had observed Bunn deliberately set the fire.
Gda Flannery said Bunn, who had moved to live in Ireland from England, was working for a recruitment agency filling clerical roles around Dublin.
He was observed on CCTV purchasing petrol and a lighter near the house prior to the incident. Bunn didn't return afterwards to the Dublin hostel where he was staying but handed himself in several days later to Mill Street Garda Station in Galway and admitted setting the fire.
Gda Flannery said Bunn told gardai the idea came to him when he was drunk. He said he purchased a knife, cigarette lighter and two containers of petrol on his way to the house where he let himself in with his key and poured petrol over furniture in several rooms.
He called out to see if there was anybody in the house and told the Korean priest that he planned to burn it down.
Gda Flannery said that Bunn revealed that when he ignited the lighter, the flames "went like a firebomb up the walls."
He left the building and sat on the steps outside the building with the priest.
He did not tell him why he set the fire but gave him the telephone number for the emergency services.
Gda Flannery said Bunn, who had no previous convictions, had caused damage totalling €3,042,000.
Gda Flannery agreed that Bunn had fully co-operated with gardai after handing himself in and had never applied for bail.
The court was told that Bunn was a "passionate environmentalist who was overly concerned at the time with climate change".
His only explanation was that he had been drinking and formed the idea that "the Jesuits were not using their moral authority to alert the world sufficiently to the dangers of climate change."
- Fiona Ferguson
