A Kilkee mother-of-three said that she was meant to escape and meant to live when recalling the terrifying ordeal when she was held against her will at knife-point by her ex-partner.

A mother who had been recovering from breast cancer yesterday relived, along with her husband and their four young children, a night of terror when an armed gang burst into their rural home in Co Limerick.

Former associates will link three men, two from Dublin, to aggravated burglaries in Co Limerick during which neighbouring families were allegedly overpowered by an armed gang, a jury heard yesterday.

Three men appeared yesterday at Kilmallock District Court charged in relation to armed raids and the false imprisonment of residents at three homes in Co Limerick almost four years ago.

Two men involved in an armed raid on a family’s home in Co Limerick have been given jail sentences of seven and five years at Limerick Circuit Court.