A 17-YEAR-OLD BOY set fire to two homes and torched three cars during a drug intimidation campaign in south Dublin, a court has heard.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with arson and other offences.

The alleged arson spree happened over 39 days from 24 January to 2 March this year, Dublin Children’s Court heard.

It is alleged that the boy gutted a €600,000 house and targeted a family in another.

Garda Adrian Myers outlined the prosecution evidence during a preliminary hearing to determine the youth’s trial venue.

Arson attacks were carried out at two houses in Glenageary to such an extent that both properties were gutted and “no longer habitable”.

Myers told Judge Paul Kelly that during an incident at Beeches Park on 2 March, a phone call was made to the home allegedly stating that the occupant had to pay a €30,000 drug debt.

The teenager then set fire to the property, causing €600,000 worth of damage. There were no occupants in the house at the time. After fleeing the scene, the teenager collided with a truck and was taken to hospital.

The court heard a family of five at Ashlawn Park were awoken in the middle of the night on 17 February.

Myers told the judge that the mother in the home at Ashlawn Park heard a window breaking.

An accelerant was poured into the house before it was set ablaze.

Dublin Fire Brigade attended the scene at 5.20am and extinguished the fire, which caused €60,000 in damage. The five occupants sustained no injuries.

The woman allegedly recognised the teen, and it was claimed he told her, “No doubt you’ll rat on me.”

Myers alleged the teenager arrived at an underground car park at East Courtyard, Tullyvale, in the early hours of 24 January on an electric motorbike.

It was the state’s case that security cameras captured him carrying a jerry can of petrol and setting a Volkswagen Golf alight.

Footage showed the alleged arsonist burning the jerry can, briefly setting himself on fire, and at one point filming the blaze. The fire spread to a Honda Fit and an Austin Cooper Saloon parked nearby, causing €11,450 worth of damage.

His phone was later recovered, and geolocation data showed the boy appeared to be at the scene of the crimes. Myers said a video retrieved from the teen’s iPhone showed him setting the car on fire while taunting the owner, saying that their “car is blazing.”

Just 50 minutes after the car park fires, the boy arrived at a house at Shanganagh Cliffs armed with a hammer, where he damaged car windows, the garda said.

His DNA was later recovered from broken window glass at the scene, the judge heard.

The Director of Public Prosecutions recommended that the boy be dealt with at a higher level in the Circuit Court, which has wider sentencing powers. However, the defence pleaded, given the boy’s age, for the case to remain in the Children’s Court, and a preliminary hearing was run.

Myers agreed with defence counsel Amy Hughes that the accused has had a long-standing drug addiction problem dating back to when he was 13 years old.

Counsel argued that a wider criminal organisation was behind the drug sales and orchestrating the activity, a point accepted by the garda. The court also heard that there was a background of criminality within the teenager’s family.

Refusing jurisdiction, the judge noted the alleged premeditation and preparation involved. While stressing that the teenager still enjoyed the presumption of innocence, he held that the case was too serious to remain in the Children’s Court.

The teenager was remanded in continuing custody pending the preparation of a book of evidence and will appear again in August.