{"id":507650,"date":"2026-06-19T08:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T08:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507650\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T08:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T08:56:10","slug":"donegal-man-convicted-of-arsons-at-iconic-pier-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507650\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal man convicted of arsons at iconic pier in England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Donegal man was issued with a five-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) after being convicted of arson in England.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gerard Doherty, a 53-year-old originally from Castlefin and now of no fixed abode was convicted of arsons at Southport Pier after a Liverpool Crown Court ourt heard that he plotted to cause \u00a330 million of damage.<\/p>\n<p>He was charged with starting three separate fires on the decking of Southport Pier in December last year and January this year.<\/p>\n<p>Doherty admitted three counts of arson and was handed an 18-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days, in addition to the CBO.<\/p>\n<p>The court heard that Doherty told police that the site was \u201cworth \u00a335million and would be worth \u00a35million by the time he was done with it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the CBO, Doherty must not enter Southport Pier; be in possession of any articles in a public place that may be sued to start a fire; or light any fires in a public place.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If he breaches the order, either by doing something prohibited or failing to follow a positive requirement, he can be arrested without a warrant and face up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said: \u201cThe order is part of work by our new Merseyside Antisocial Behaviour Partnership, a pan\u2011Merseyside partnership uniting more than 20 key organisations, including housing associations, local councils and charities, to tackle antisocial behaviour across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/lead-stories\/donegal-mums-faith-in-miracle-strong-after-devastating-diagnosis-638621\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Donegal mum\u2019s faith in miracle strong after devastating diagnosis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/donegal-mum-rsquo-s-faith-in-miracle-strong-after-devastating-diagnosis.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Donegal mum\u2019s faith in miracle strong after devastating diagnosis\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/dozens-of-basking-sharks-spotted-around-donegal-bay-638629\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Dozens of basking sharks spotted around Donegal Bay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dozens-of-basking-sharks-spotted-around-donegal-bay.png\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"Dozens of basking sharks spotted around Donegal Bay\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Chief Superintendent Karl Baldwin chairs the partnership, and said: &#8220;The sheer recklessness of starting fires means that such an order needs to be in place as a deterrent to Doherty.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe consequences of his actions could have been devastating, like any arson carried out in our communities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;CBOs and other preventative orders need multi-agency working to be achieved, and are powerful tools in dealing with antisocial behaviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch effective joined up working is why the MASP was set up, and we will continue to share information between the agencies, and use all tools available to stop problems from escalating, and tackle anti-social behaviour where you are.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When the public asks \u2018who is responsible for dealing with antisocial behaviour\u2019, we are striving for the answer to be \u2018we all are: together&#8217; so keep reporting issues to us and we will take action.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Donegal man was issued with a five-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) after being convicted of arson in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-507650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}