Drug gang petrol-bombed Irish family of six because father tried to protect a friend from a FIVE-FIGURE DEBT
A house on Birchwood Avenue in Waterford City, where a suspected petrol bomb attack in the early hours of Tuesday killed a man, a woman and two of their children.Kim English, who Gardaí believe was deliberately targeted after her husband Philip assumed a drug debt to shield an associate, leaving two further children in critical condition at Children's Health Ireland, Crumlin.
Philip and Kim English and their sons Callum, 12, and Jayden, nine, were killed when a petrol bomb was thrown at their front door in Waterford's Birchwood estate just after 5am on Tuesday. Gardaí believe Philip had taken on a drug debt owed by an associate to protect him, and the gang targeted the family when he could not raise the money in time. Two surviving children, Nadia and Elliot, are fighting for their lives at Crumlin children's hospital in Dublin — Nadia on life support, Elliot in a critical condition. Jayden had undergone heart surgery just two weeks before he died.
The family had begged the council for a transfer, telling officials they were 'living in fear' — a petrol bomb had been thrown at their car less than a month earlier.
Gardaí raided properties linked to two criminal figures on Tuesday night and say they have identified suspects, warning locals: 'There are people who know who's behind this.'
Granduncle James English, godfather to Callum, stood at the Birchwood estate in tears: 'Whoever done it should hand themselves in — we have a whole family wiped out.'
