Mayo man convicted of petrol bomb attack on former fiancée’s home - Courts News Ireland

A Mayo man has been convicted of arson after he threw a petrol bomb at the home of his former fiancée in Castlebar, Co Mayo just over a year ago. Eamon Maughan (28) of Castlegrove, Castlebar had denied the offence but was found guilty by a jury following a five-day trial at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court. He had also been accused of

A Mayo man has been convicted of arson after he threw a petrol bomb at the home of his former fiancée in Castlebar, Co Mayo just over a year ago.

Eamon Maughan (28) of Castlegrove, Castlebar had denied the offence but was found guilty by a jury following a five-day trial at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court.

He had also been accused of making a threat to kill or cause serious harm to Mrs Maughan a few hours after the arson attack, but the jury acquitted him of this charge.

The trial heard that Ellen Maughan, who had been engaged to the accused some years earlier, was home with her three children on October 29th, 2025 when she was woken by two loud bangs at 3am.

She told the court that when she looked out her bedroom window she saw the accused running from the scene after he had thrown an object twice at her front door.

Ms Maughan told gardaí that she ran down the stairs and saw the front door ‘engulfed in fire and smoke’ but that she managed to quench the flames by throwing pots of water at the door.

She rang 999 and after the fire service and gardaí arrived, Ms Maughan and her children were brought to a relative’s house for safety.

During the trial, Garda Thomas Nugent told Patrick Reynolds BL, prosecuting, that a Fairy Liquid bottle containing a petrol-soaked cloth was found on the doorstep and that photos taken at the scene showed scorch marks on the door.

Gda Nugent agreed with defence counsel, Fergal McMorrow BL, that he had not personally examined the door but said he was told by fire crew that there was soot damage on it.

The garda said there was ‘hard driving rain’ at the time and his priority was to secure the bottle and make sure everyone in the house was safe.

Her husband Michael Maughan agreed with the defence that he did not bring his children to the hospital because he didn’t think they needed it and that he had not paid to repair any fire or smoke damage.

‘It was a large fire with a lot of smoke, but it could have been a lot worse, she quenched it out,’ he said.

Ellen Maughan told the court that she had been engaged to the accused seven or eight years previously and that he ‘didn’t take it too well’ when she broke up with him.

Mr McMorrow said Ms Maughan’s account in court had ‘about a hundred more legs’ than her initial garda statement, in which she failed to say she had seen the accused fleeing the scene.

Mrs Maughan told the court that there had been enough smoke to set off the fire alarms and that she had been traumatised and in a ‘frantic, hysterical state’ at the time.

‘My children were nearly murdered so I was in a state of shock. I’m still not recovered from it, it has affected my mental health,’ she told the court.

Mr Reynolds told the jury that although there was damage to the door, ‘it wasn’t the Great Fire of London.’

‘It was a conflagration. The fact that she probably exaggerated the extent of the flames does not mean it didn’t happen,’ said Mr Reynolds.

Mr McMorrow said there were ‘glaring, roaring inconsistencies’ in Mrs Maughan’s account and that it was ‘far beyond exaggeration’, ‘a concoction, a story to get at Eamon Maughan’.

Judge Eoin Garavan remanded Eamon Maughan in custody and adjourned the case for sentencing on the first of March next.