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Guozhong Chen: a revenge arson caused €3.5m damage and stopped 19 businesses

Guozhong Chen drove from Mullingar to Longford with petrol, set fire to a commercial complex and returned home. The court found that the attack was planned out of spite and revenge against a former business associate. Four people escaped the building; businesses were displaced and some never reopened.

Published 31 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger
€3.5mReported direct damage
19 businessesClosed by the fire
4 peopleEvacuated from upstairs
9 yearsEffective prison term

The Grafton Court fire

In the early hours of 28 July 2024, Chen travelled from Mullingar to the Grafton Court Complex in Longford town. CCTV traced the journey and the prosecution said he brought petrol, entered the building and started the fire before driving home.

The blaze spread through the complex. Gas cylinders inside acted like flame throwers. Four people in accommodation above the businesses were evacuated and nobody was physically injured, but the commercial destruction was extensive. Nineteen businesses closed, employees and owners lost their premises, and the final sentencing report put the damage at €3.5 million. Some businesses did not reopen.

Spite, revenge and a second incident

The intended target was a rival restaurant connected to a former business associate. At sentence, the judge found the arson was planned and motivated by spite and revenge. The scale of the resulting fire went far beyond one unit and struck an entire group of businesses.

Chen pleaded guilty on a full-facts basis to arson under the Criminal Damage Act 1991. A charge concerning damage to a Range Rover on 7 July 2024 was taken into consideration. It was not treated as a separate conviction in the reports reviewed.

Investigation and sentence

Gardaí assembled an extensive CCTV trail covering Chen’s movements from Mullingar to Longford and back. He was arrested on 8 August 2024 and initially denied involvement. He later entered the arson plea.

On 7 July 2026, the court fixed a headline term of 14 years. Mitigation reduced it to ten years and six months, and the final 18 months were suspended. The result was nine years of immediate custody, backdated to 8 August 2024.

Citizenship must be stated accurately

Chen was born in China, moved to the United Kingdom in the late 1990s and came to Ireland in 2001. The final sentencing report states that he became an Irish citizen in 2008 after renouncing Chinese citizenship. He is therefore described here as a Chinese-born Irish citizen, not as a current Chinese national or an illegal immigrant.

The reviewed reports do not establish a prior-conviction history. Silence in those reports is not converted into a claim that none existed.

Chronology

The financial ledger

The court report identifies €3.5 million in direct fire damage. That is a reported consequence of the offence, not a prison cost and not necessarily a bill paid wholly by the State.

Separately, applying the Irish Prison Service’s 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space mechanically across the nine-year effective term gives a nominal prison-capacity benchmark of €891,648.

The two figures must not be added and called a taxpayer invoice. The custody benchmark is not case-specific and excludes remission, remand treatment, future cost changes, Garda work, courts, prosecution, legal aid, emergency response and the continuing losses of businesses and workers.

Sources

Record checked: 31 July 2026. Later reporting corrects preliminary damage estimates and establishes that Chen was an Irish citizen at the time of the offence.