The deaths of Philip and Kim English and two of their children in their home just outside Waterford city has brought into focus an increase in drug-related intimidation, often in the form of petrol bombings, in recent years.
With shootings in decline over the past decade, arson has become the attack of choice within the drugs trade. It appears the clampdown on the Kinahan and Hutch gangs in Ireland was so successful that most drugs gangs are reluctant to engage in serious gun attacks for fear of drawing Garda attention.
Those same groups have opted instead to pay young criminals, often teenage boys, to carry out attacks on their drug-dealing rivals or on people who owe them money. The result has been an upsurge in petrol bomb attacks.
“You’re talking about [criminals] who are just looking at it as leverage to extort people,” said one Garda source. “Somebody might buy drugs on credit and haven’t paid it back. Or they may have taken a consignment [of drugs] to sell and it’s seized by us, so now they owe the cost of the drugs.
“But you could owe these guys €1,000 and they might demand €5,000. And you could pay it off and they’d want another €5,000. They’re just using the initial debt as an excuse to extort families.”
Another source familiar with drug intimidation said the criminals demanding the money often target parents, or other family members, in a bid to extort money.
“So, you have people who had nothing to do with the original debt, nothing to do with crime at all, getting death threats,” he said. “Or it’s their cars being targeted, petrol bombs thrown at their houses. Their lives are made hell by groups [of young boys] sent by older criminals to just keep hammering away at them until they pay.”
The Irish Times gathered data from 14 local authorities nationwide revealing they had recorded 113 arson attacks on council properties in the past five years, 50 of which were recorded last year. The four local authorities in Dublin had recorded 59 attacks since 2022, with 35 of those recorded last year.
These figures do not include attacks on private-rented or owner-occupied homes.
Gardaí said arson attacks on houses are rarely, if ever, designed to kill. Instead, they are seen as a violent intimidatory attack that is several levels below a shooting, which draws the attention of national Garda units that deal with organised crime.
But the targeting of the English family on the Birchwood estate in Waterford in the early hours of Tuesday demonstrates how arson attacks designed to intimidate rather than kill can spin out of control.
Most petrol bombings are not fatal, but only because occupants manage to scramble to safety. They are intended as a frightening act of intimidation, usually designed to force the settlement of a drugs debt. Gardaí believe the attack on the English home was drug related.
While there is no suggestion whatsoever Philip or Kim English were involved in the drugs trade, gardaí suspect Philip English may have taken over a drug debt run up by an associate. Detectives believe the father of four was trying to protect his younger associate in perhaps promising to pay the money he owed to local criminals.
The Englishes’ house was attacked in August, with the family car destroyed when paint was thrown over it. The family were attacked again last month when a petrol bomb was thrown at the car, while some threats were also made on social media. In a big escalation, the property was petrol bombed just after 5am on Tuesday.
The flames engulfed the house, killing Philip and Kim English and two of their children, while leaving the other two children in a critical condition in hospital.