Bomb was thrown into house with five children inside

A bomb was thrown through the front window of a house in Limerick with five children inside, two of them toddlers. It landed on a kitchen table and, miraculously, failed to detonate, Limerick Circuit Court heard.

A girl and a boy, both aged 14, an 11-year-old girl, and two infant girls, aged 11 months and 18 months, were in the house. The bomb was made up of shotgun cartridge propellant, lead shot, and marbles.

State prosecutor John O’Sullivan told the court: “The amount of shotgun propellant cartridge could make up to 50 12-guage shotgun cartridges, which would be dispersed in the event of it exploding. The marbles would act as shrapnel and be scattered far and wide, if exploded. It would have caused significant injuries if it had detonated.”

Stephen Mulqueen, aged 20, of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, who pleaded guilty, will be sentenced tomorrow.

Mr O’Sullivan told Limerick Circuit Court: “Shortly after midnight the girl, 14, heard a bang and moments later she saw one of the windows in the house was broken. At the time she and the boy, 14, were in the sitting-room at the back of the house. The kitchen is to the front. “She went to the front door and saw a fella running away wearing black clothes and a scarf over his face.”

The court heard the man got into a waiting car. “This was a deliberate and planned attack on the house,” Mr O’Sullivan said. He said the attack occurred only because the owner, a man of impeccable character, was related to “a person involved in criminality”.

Detective Garda Brian Culbert accepted Mulqueen was not involved in the planning of the attack. He also accepted Mulqueen was not involved in the assembly of the bomb, although the defendant was aware the bomb was to be thrown at the house.