Man and woman arrested in connection with Waterford house fire
Philip and Kim English and their sons Callum, 12, and Jayden, nine, died in the suspected arson attack on their home on Tuesday.
A man and woman have been arrested by police in Ireland investigating the murder of a mother, father and their two children in a suspected arson attack on their home earlier this week.
The man in his 20s and woman in her 30s are being questioned at a garda station in connection with the fire in Waterford.
Philip and Kim English and their sons Callum, 12, and Jayden, nine, died in the blaze at their home on Tuesday.
Their funeral mass will be held in the Sacred Heart Church, the Folly, Waterford on Monday, followed by burial in Kilbarry Cemetery, Waterford.
On Thursday afternoon, gardaí said the arrested man and woman were held on suspicion of facilitating a criminal organisation.
Gardaí said two other children injured in the suspected arson attack remain in a critical condition at Children’s Health Ireland Crumlin.
The post-mortem examinations on Mr and Mrs English and their sons have been completed, but the results are not being released for “operational reasons”.
Gardaí have repeated their appeal for information into the attack, which happened in Birch Avenue, Birchwood, on Tuesday morning.
Earlier on Thursday, Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane said drug-related intimidation and criminal gangs must be confronted head on and called for better support for families targeted by criminals.
Mr Cullinane said the attack in Waterford showed “utter contempt for human life”.
On Wednesday, Mr English’s son claimed his family were murdered because of someone else’s 20,000-euro drug debt.
John James English said the family had been targeted for some time but were not involved in drugs and were “innocent”.
He told RTÉ News: “It’s a family, you know.
“Twenty grand worth of a debt, is that worth nearly five lives?”
Multiple properties have been searched and a number of electronic devices and vehicles seized as part of an “intense” Garda investigation.
Mr Cullinane, who knows the family, said people in Waterford were devastated by their deaths.
Speaking in the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions on Thursday, Mr Cullinane said: “This murderous attack showed utter contempt for human life, and anyone who planned, ordered, or carried out this attack must face the full force of the law.
“Drug-related intimidation must also be confronted head on. Other families are looking out their front doors and wondering, could their children be next?
“No family should have to put their children to bed wondering whether someone will set fire to their home before morning, and yet drug gangs and organised criminals are inflicting precisely that terror on families.
“They threaten children. They assault people. They burn homes, they murder people, and they pursue parents, friends, and even neighbours for money.”
He called on the Government to ensure that Waterford has Garda resources needed for the murder investigation, including the support of the Organised Crime Unit and the Criminal Assets Bureau.
“Secondly, will you ensure that families reporting threats have all the supports that they need, including an urgent risk assessment, a named contact and a co-ordinated protection plan, with access to safe emergency accommodation when needed,” he added.
“Will you commit to a review of how threats and requests for help are managed, and how families are supported, and will the Minister for Justice report to this House next week on the wider response to drug-related intimidation, because the response to these murders cannot be outraged today and forgotten tomorrow.”
He added: “We have to face down these criminal gangs. These are cowards, and what happened in Waterford has people’s hearts broken, and it should never, ever have happened.”
Minister for Defence Helen McEntee said the attack was “violent criminality” and that drug debt collection was an “absolute scourge” on society.
“For those who do not feel that they can go to the Garda, I think this is part of some of the problem for people,” she said.
“They don’t feel that they can go to the gardaí, that there are other routes, but that we do need to encourage people to go directly to the gardaí because we do have within An Garda Síochána a dedicated unit, a dedicated anti-drug strategy through Operation Tara, that looks at and deals with quite a number of things.”
Ms McEntee said she would “engage” with the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, on whether more could be done to tackle the issue.
Hundreds of people attended a vigil on Wednesday in the Birchwood area, where parish priest Gerry Chestnutt called on those responsible to “to stand up, admit what you did and face the legal consequences”.