A MAN HAS BEEN arrested today in connection with a fatal fire in Tallaght over ten years ago.

Stephen Hughes Connors was 12 years of age when he was killed in a fire at Rossfield Avenue, Brookfield on 1 September, 2001.

He and a 14-year-old friend were sleeping in a makeshift hut made out of pallets, doors and carpet. The hut was set on fire sometime before 5am, according to gardaí.

An arrest was made in April 2006 after the Serious Crime Review Team re-examined the case. A file was sent to the DPP, but the 51-year-old suspect was not prosecuted.

Gardaí issued an appeal in September on the tenth anniversary of the boy’s death. At that time, Superintendent Eamon Dolan of Tallaght said he was “confident that there are people out there who know what happened that night or who may have been confided in afterwards”.

Today, gardaí said that new evidence has come to light since that anniversary appeal and has led to the arrest of a 52-year-old man in the Dublin 7 area.

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He is being held at Tallaght Garda Station under Section 5 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.