Gardai were on patrol after earlier arson bid
THE thugs who burned out a house over false rumours it was earmarked for asylum seekers targeted it even though gardai were patrolling the site every day.
Gardai also confirmed yesterday that officers had repeatedly told protesters the Kildare site was not to be used for asylum seekers.
The senior officer leading the probe into the attack on the property in Leixlip revealed it had been targeted eight days earlier.
But despite her officers mounting daily patrols following the first arson bid on January 30, attackers targeted the house in Celbridge Road at 1.30am on Wednesday.
Lead investigator Superintendent Georgina Gray said: “We became aware there may be an issue at that property. We had liaised with the property owner, provided crime prevention advice.
“The guards had engaged daily with those protests. There has been a lot of engagement ongoing to dispel any of those rumours.
“That rumour was there beforehand and protests had been taking place.
“We did engage but unfortunately the fears were there for people and they just weren’t satisfied that it wasn’t going to be used for that purpose.” The two Leixlip attacks bring to 19 the number of sites targeted since January last year that were either planned for asylum seekers or merely the subject of unfounded rumours.
Sources say gardai don’t believe one group is directing the attacks.
However, Supt Gray said her officers would be liaising with other detectives in case there was a link.
Although she said it was too early to say if the Leixlip blaze fell into the category of hate crime, Supt Gray warned there was a major Garda probe into the blaze and that the maximum penalty for arson was life in prison.
Meanwhile, gardai in Dublin investigating another suspected anti-asylum seeker arson attack were last night still quizzing two suspects.
The two men, aged in their 30s and 50s, were arrested with a woman in her 20s early yesterday as part of the probe into the attack on the old Shipwright pub in Ringsend on December 31.
The site was destroyed after it was wrongly claimed it was to be used to house asylum seekers when it was actually earmarked for the homeless.
The woman was released without charge in the afternoon but the two men were still being questioned last
night.