{"id":654871,"date":"2026-10-14T21:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654871\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:50:08","slug":"waterford-murders-someone-elses-e20k-drug-debt-behind-attack-family-member-believes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/654871\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterford murders: Someone else\u2019s \u20ac20k drug debt behind attack, family member believes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garda\u00ed<\/a> investigating the murder of four people in an arson attack in Co Waterford<\/a> have seized a number of mobile phones and several vehicles, as two children remain in a critical condition in hospital.<\/p>\n

Philip and Kim English, and two of their sons, Callum (12) and Jayden (8), were murdered by a gang trying to collect a \u20ac20,000 drug debt, a family member has said. <\/p>\n

John James English, Philip English\u2019s adult son from his first marriage, said the debt had been incurred by somebody else, not his father.<\/p>\n

Two other children \u2013 a girl aged 14 years and a boy aged six \u2013 remain critically ill in Children\u2019s Health Ireland (CHI) Crumlin, Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cDebts, drug debts, and I know that for a fact,\u201d John James English told RT\u00c9 when asked why he believed the arson attack was carried out.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family is dead, it\u2019s unreal. Innocent children, the whole lot of them innocent,\u201d he said, adding that his father was not involved in drugs or any form of crime.<\/p>\n

\"PhilipPhilip and Kim English, pictured with their children Callum (12) and Jayden (9). <\/p>\n

John James said that when his mother, Anne, was forced out of her house for about two months after it was petrol bombed, his father, Philip, and stepmother, Kim, opened their home to Anne. She stayed there for eight weeks.<\/p>\n

Anne English later gathered in the Birchwood estate at a vigil for the family. She said that she had ten children with Philip prior to their breakup. The former couple were lucky to have had such an amicable relationship. <\/p>\n

Anne emphasised that she was \u201cbest friends\u201d with Philip and Kim. She admitted she was \u201cin disbelief\u201d that anyone would knowingly harm the \u201cvery well liked\u201d family. \u201cWe were one big happy family. We were very close. Their kids were their life.<\/p>\n

Another member of the family \u2013 James English, the granduncle of Philip English \u2013 also spoke out, addressing the killer directly. \u201cWe have lost a family now, wiped out,\u201d he said at a vigil for the family at the Sacred Heart Church, The Folly. \u201cPlease, whoever done it, be a man and own up to what you done.\u201d <\/p>\n

Searches on Tuesday, which included some properties with possible links to the local drugs trade, were aimed at gathering evidence, rather than seeking people for arrest. No arrests have been made, garda\u00ed confirmed.<\/p>\n

Detectives have established lines of inquiry and have identified suspects quickly as the campaign of intimidation against the family \u2013 by a local drugs gang in Waterford city \u2013 had been ongoing for some time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The house at Birch Avenue remains a crime scene and subject of a technical examination by the Garda Technical Bureau.<\/p>\n

Postmortems on the deceased are continuing at University Hospital Waterford by Chief State Pathologist Linda Mulligan and State Pathologist SallyAnne Collis.<\/p>\n

Garda family liaison officers continue to engage with the family.<\/p>\n

The Garda team also believes the family had shared their concerns and information about their situation with people in their social circle, who may now be able to aid the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people in the community who know the person or persons who carried out this arson attack in which four people have been murdered,\u201d Garda Chief Supt Anthony Pettit said.<\/p>\n

The family had approached local representatives in recent weeks in the hopes of securing a council transfer to another home as they felt unsafe.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s home, on the Birchwood estate just south of Waterford city, had been attacked before, most recently last month, when a petrol bomb was thrown at their car.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the same vehicle was vandalised with a bucket of paint, but it is unclear whether this was directly linked to the arson attacks in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Nine-year-old boy killed in Waterford arson attack had heart surgery two weeks agoOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The latest attack, which happened just after 5am on Tuesday, involved a petrol bomb, which was thrown at the front door, causing a fire that spread through the two-storey semidetached house. <\/p>\n

In addition to the two adults and two children who died, two other children suffered critical injuries.<\/p>\n

They were initially taken to University Hospital Waterford but moved to Children\u2019s Health Ireland in Crumlin on Tuesday. They remained in critical condition on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Though the investigation is at an early stage, garda\u00ed suspect Philip English had taken on a drug debt incurred by an associate in an effort to keep the associate safe. <\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed strongly suspect the local crime gang that was owed money targeted the family on Tuesday morning, and was also behind last month\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said on Wednesday the Government will put in place all resources needed for the Garda investigation, and for community supports, as he thanked the first responders for dealing with \u201cwhat was a very traumatic situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Deaths in Waterford attack put focus on increase in drug-related intimidationOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts are still very much on the shocking murder yesterday of the members of the English family,\u201d Miche\u00e1l Martin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is extremely shocking in terms of the level of violence and the consequences of an entire family to be impacted in this manner, and I think we, as a Government, will ensure that the full resources are behind An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a period [when] we have to really examine and reflect on this phenomenon of arson attacks on innocent people, and with absolutely no consideration for human life and for the impact of such actions, and I know the Minister for Justice and others will be working extremely hard to stamp this out and to deal very resolutely and robustly with this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed investigating the murder of four people in an arson attack in Co Waterford have seized a number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,30791,44746,61,60,43,6513],"class_list":["post-654871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi","tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi-at-crumlin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}