Two people have been arrested over the arson attack in Waterford city that claimed the lives of four members of the English family on Tuesday.
The suspects, a man in his 20s and woman in her 30s, were detained on Thursday.
They are suspected of facilitating a crime gang in relation to the arson attack at the house on Birch Avenue, in the Birchwood estate. The arrests, which were anticipated, followed searches carried out across Waterford on Tuesday evening.
“Both individuals are currently detained under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 in a Garda station in the Garda Eastern region,” the Garda said of Thursday’s arrests.
Both suspects can now be held for up to seven days without charge as they have been detained under legislation intended for use during the investigation of alleged serious organised crime.
A number of vehicles, phones and laptops have already been seized for examination. Gardaí have been continuing to try to locate a female suspect and a vehicle of interest linked to the case in recent days.
Philip and Kim English and two of their sons, Callum (12) and Jayden (9), were killed in the attack on their home. Two other children – a girl (14) and a boy (6) – were rescued by firefighters and remain critically ill in Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) Crumlin, Dublin.
John James English, Philip English’s adult son from his first marriage, said he believes the drug debt behind the arson had been incurred by somebody else, not his father, and that it had reached €20,000.
The English family home had been targeted before, most recently in a petrol bombing last month. Philip English’s first wife, Anne, had her house petrol bombed and was forced to move out for two months, as part of the same campaign of intimidation, which has been ongoing for more than three years.