Published: Friday, 22nd August, 2008 09:45
Tullibody mum is jailed for petrol bomb plot
By Hamish Hutchinson
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Dawn Monaghan has been jailedf for 12 months.
A MOTHER who persuaded two teenagers to petrol bomb her neighbour’s home has been locked up for 12 months.
Dawn Monaghan (38) targeted the house of Jackie Campbell (39) and her family as she slept in her bed.
The attack came days after a row between Monaghan and Jackie about wild parties in the street.
Monaghan hatched a plot with Andrew Hunter (18) and Ryan MacSween (16) and supplied them with glass bottles, rags and petrol.
Petrol bomb victims Jackie Campbell and her children Chantelle and Tony are relieved to see the woman behind the attck on their home is now behind bars.
Pic by: Jan van der Merwe
She then watched on from her own house in The Braes, Tullibody, as the impressionable teenagers threw the homemade bombs in the early hours of the morning.
The attack left the Campbells terrified to live in their own home and one year on they are still recovering from the trauma.
As Monaghan began her one year sentence behind bars on Monday, Mrs Campbell told the Advertiser, “I’m pleased that she got what she deserved. No way could she get away with conduct like that.
“It could have been a lot different, she could have killed me and my bairns.”
Alloa Sheriff Court heard that Monaghan discussed the plan to firebomb the Campbells with Hunter and MacSween when they came round to play computer games at 8pm on 24 July last year.
Later the pair crept into the quiet street at 1.30am, while Jackie and her daughter Chantelle (14) lay asleep in bed, and threw the homemade bombs striking the front door and setting it alight.
A second petrol bomb bounced off the door and landed in the front garden intact.
Inside Jackie’s son Tony (16), who was awake in the living room, raised the alarm after he heard a thump at the front door and saw smoke seeping into the house.
Speaking to the Advertiser the morning after the attack, Mrs Campbell said, “Wee Tony was on the computer using MSN when he heard a bang at the front door. At first he thought it was a gritter going around the area because of the orange light, even though it’s the middle of July, but when he realised the light wasn’t moving he came up and told me.
“I was far too frightened to open the front door. I didn’t know what was going to meet me. I stayed up the stairs with the bairns until the fire brigade came.
“It’s a great friendly street and everybody talks to one another so it’s been a bit of a shock to everyone.
“It’s the type of thing you get somewhere like Glasgow but you don’t think you’d get it on your own doorstep.”
The attack caused Ł1555 worth of damage to the Ochilview Housing Association property and a few days later Monaghan, now of Tay Court, Alloa, and her accomplices were arrested and charged with willful fireraising.
Hunter, of Redlands Road, Tullibody and MacSween, of Newmills, Tullibody, pled guilty and were sentenced to community service in June for their part in the attack.
Monaghan’s solicitor Alastair Burleigh told the court that the dispute between her and Mrs Campbell had boiled over.
He added that she had a background of mental illness and would behave impulsively at times.
Mr Burleigh said, “She had a breaking point and she reached it. Against the background she simply snapped. Fortunately it didn’t have any serious consequences. It was grossly stupid on her part.”
He asked for leniency and a community service disposal but Sheriff David Mackie told Monaghan that a custody was the only suitable sentence.
He said, “This charge relates to circumstances in which you planned and instigated a serious attempt to set fire to your neighbour’s home and you demonstrated a reckless intolerance.
“Whatever the background there may have been there is never any justification for this sort of conduct and the matter is taken very seriously.
“Suggestions you snapped are undermined by the degree of premeditation which followed this event; the planning and the fact you got young people to do the work for you.
“You were not suffering from any psychological illness at the time and the outcome could have been disastrous, even fatal, for the people in that house.”
Speaking outside court, Mrs Campbell said the incident had severely affected the family.
She said, “My daughter went off the rails after that and my laddie wouldn’t go to sleep at all.
“My eldest daughter (Clair) stayed with me as they all wanted to be with me all the time.
“Hopefully we can move on. I feel sorry for her (Monaghan) bairns but at the same time she got what she deserved.”
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