Latest news with #GardaÍ
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
House fire victims include former death row inmate
A US woman who spent years on death row for a crime she was later exonerated for was among two people found dead after a house fire in the Republic of Ireland. Sonia 'Sunny' Jacobs died alongside County Galway man Kevin Kelly after a blaze at a house in rural County Galway on Tuesday morning. Ms Jacobs, who was in her 70s, spent 17 years in prison in the US after she was accused of killing two police officers in Florida in 1976. She was sentenced to the electric chair but it was later commuted to a life sentence. On her release she campaigned against the death penalty. The house fire broke out at a rural house in Gleann Mhic Mhuireann, near the village of Casla in Connemara. Firefighters and gardaí (Irish police) were alerted to the blaze at about 06:20 local time on Tuesday. Photographs from the scene show a garda cordon blocking access to a property up a small county lane. The bodies of Ms Jacobs and Mr Kelly, who was in his early 30s, were recovered from the property by firefighters. Irish broadcaster RTÉ has reported that the cause of the fire is under examination but at this stage foul play is not suspected. Ms Jacobs had been living in the Republic of Ireland for several years, having married an Irishman who was also wrongly convicted of a double murder. Her late husband, Peter Pringle, was also sentenced to death after being accused of murdering two police officers during a bank robbery in rural Ireland in 1980. He was one of the last people to be sentenced to death before capital punishment was abolished in the Republic of Ireland. Mr Pringle served almost 15 years in jail before being acquitted. The couple, who met while giving a talk about her death-row experience, later married in New York in 2011. They worked to help others who had been wrongfully convicted to adjust to life after release from prison, with Ms Jacobs running a retreat for ex-inmates. The couple took part in a BBC Radio Ulster documentary called Exonerated in 2017. Following Tuesday's fire, the bodies of Ms Jacobs and Mr Kelly were taken to University Hospital Galway for post-mortem examinations. GardaÍ have appealed for witnesses to the fire to contact them.
Sunday World
21-04-2025
- Sunday World
Video: Gardai probing ‘arson' attack in Finglas house blaze as incident may be revenge on relative
Sources have confirmed to the Sunday World that officers investigating the fire, which broke out early Friday morning, are treating it as an incident of 'criminal damage.' GardaÍ investigating a blaze that engulfed a home on Deanstown Green in Finglas on Friday morning are now probing it as a suspected arson attack. Sources have confirmed to the Sunday World that officers investigating the fire, which broke out early Friday morning, are treating it as an incident of 'criminal damage.' A motive for the attack is now being sought. One line of inquiry is that the blaze may have been deliberately started as a revenge attack against a relative of the innocent property-owner. 'The suspicion is that this relative has made a number of enemies due to his own criminal activities,' a local source told the Sunday World. 'He is suspected of being behind a campaign of thefts in the area and has amassed a lot of enemies because of this.' The location of Friday morning's suspected arson attack is just a couple of hundred yards from the home of Glen Ward – the man identified in court as the gangster nicknamed 'Mr Flashy'. However, the attack is not believed to be linked to Ward or his rivals – and none of the people living in the home are involved with the so-called Flashy gang. Ward (32) pleaded guilty last month in the Special Criminal Court to possessing a Remington AR-15 semi- automatic rifle at his North Dublin home in February 2022. Flames and smoke billow from the property Ward earned the nickname Mr Flashy because of his love for designer clothes, expensive watches and luxury holidays. He directed the activities of a gang known as the 'Gucci Gang.' The gang has been involved in a number of violent gangland feuds which led to the deaths of both Zachary Parker and Sean Little and their associates Jordan Davis and Hamid Sanambar.' Ward's brother, Eric O'Driscoll (23), also pleaded guilty to possession of the same gun as his more infamous brother. During a sentencing hearing for O'Driscoll last year, it was heard that during a search of a home in Finglas in February 2022, gardaí recovered the semi-automatic rifle along with a military grade sub-machine gun and ammunition. The guns were found to be in good condition and were successfully fired by a Garda ballistics examiner, the detective said. Det Insp Kelly said analysts found a video clip on the phone in which O'Driscoll could be seen taking the AR-15 rifle from another man and firing it from the rear of a home in Finglas. A source told the Sunday World that following the incarceration of Ward, people hoped criminality in the area would die down. 'People are hoping this attack is an isolated event and not the start of a fresh round of tit for tat violence,' the source said.
Sunday World
21-04-2025
- Sunday World
Gardai probing ‘arson' attack in Finglas house blaze as incident may be revenge on relative
Sources have confirmed to the Sunday World that officers investigating the fire, which broke out early Friday morning, are treating it as an incident of 'criminal damage.' Flames and smoke billow from the property not far from the home of Mr Flashy The scene of the suspected arson attack in Finglas GardaÍ investigating a blaze that engulfed a home on Deanstown Green in Finglas on Friday morning are now probing it as a suspected arson attack. Sources have confirmed to the Sunday World that officers investigating the fire, which broke out early Friday morning, are treating it as an incident of 'criminal damage.' A motive for the attack is now being sought. One line of inquiry is that the blaze may have been deliberately started as a revenge attack against a relative of the innocent property-owner. 'The suspicion is that this relative has made a number of enemies due to his own criminal activities,' a local source told the Sunday World. 'He is suspected of being behind a campaign of thefts in the area and has amassed a lot of enemies because of this.' The location of Friday morning's suspected arson attack is just a couple of hundred yards from the home of Glen Ward – the man identified in court as the gangster nicknamed 'Mr Flashy'. However, the attack is not believed to be linked to Ward or his rivals – and none of the people living in the home are involved with the so-called Flashy gang. Ward (32) pleaded guilty last month in the Special Criminal Court to possessing a Remington AR-15 semi- automatic rifle at his North Dublin home in February 2022. Flames and smoke billow from the property Ward earned the nickname Mr Flashy because of his love for designer clothes, expensive watches and luxury holidays. He directed the activities of a gang known as the 'Gucci Gang.' The gang has been involved in a number of violent gangland feuds which led to the deaths of both Zachary Parker and Sean Little and their associates Jordan Davis and Hamid Sanambar.' Ward's brother, Eric O'Driscoll (23), also pleaded guilty to possession of the same gun as his more infamous brother. During a sentencing hearing for O'Driscoll last year, it was heard that during a search of a home in Finglas in February 2022, gardaí recovered the semi-automatic rifle along with a military grade sub-machine gun and ammunition. The guns were found to be in good condition and were successfully fired by a Garda ballistics examiner, the detective said. Det Insp Kelly said analysts found a video clip on the phone in which O'Driscoll could be seen taking the AR-15 rifle from another man and firing it from the rear of a home in Finglas. A source told the Sunday World that following the incarceration of Ward, people hoped criminality in the area would die down. 'People are hoping this attack is an isolated event and not the start of a fresh round of tit for tat violence,' the source said.
