LAST UPDATE | 26 Dec 2019

A MAN HAS appeared in court over charges relating to a house fire in Navan, Co Meath.

The fire was reported to authorities on Christmas Day.

Local fire crews and units from the nearby town of Trim were called out to the blaze at the Beechmount Estate, with the Meath Fire Service calling it a “large domestic house fire”. 

David Prescott, a 35-year-old English national, appeared at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin today charged with three counts of criminal damage and one count of burglary. 

Garda Ciara Dunican of Navan Garda Station told the court that when the charge of burglary was put to Prescott, he replied: “I don’t agree.” He did not reply to the other charges.

No application for bail was made, and an application for legal aid was submitted. The case is due back before the court on 31 December.

No-one was in the house where the fire broke out; residents were evacuated from two adjoining houses. No-one was injured, gardaí said in a statement released this morning. 

- with reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha