Man and woman arrested over Waterford 'petrol bomb' murders of Philip and Kim English and their two sons
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, one of four family members killed when a drug gang firebombed their Waterford home, had begged the council for a transfer, telling officials the family was "living in fear.
Gardaí have arrested a man in his 20s and a woman in her 30s over the murder of Philip and Kim English and their sons Callum, 12, and Jayden, nine, who died when a petrol bomb was thrown into their Waterford home in the early hours of Tuesday. Two other children, Nadia, 14, and Elliot, six, remain in a critical condition in hospital. Investigators are probing whether a Traveller gang boss ordered the attack over a €20,000 drug debt owed by someone known to the family — a debt the English family had no part in.
Philip's son John James English told RTÉ: 'Is 20 grand worth nearly five lives?'
Police fear three brothers running a low-level drugs operation ordered the killing and are probing whether a woman drove the attacker to the scene.
Philip had texted a local journalist at 4.17am just four weeks before the murders: 'Please call me — my car got petrol bombed.'
