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GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING THE cold case murders of a woman and two children in a house fire in Kildare 30 years ago have arrested a man in his 50s.
Barbara Doyle (20) and her nieces Mary Ellen Byrne (8) and Kerrie Byrne (3) died at a house fire in Kilcock, Kildare that occurred on 20 September 1987.
Gardaí said a man was arrested this afternoon in north county Dublin and is currently detained at Leixlip Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.
Last week, gardaí said they had upgraded their investigation to murder and urged people to contact them if they had any information about the deaths.
Speaking at a press conference in Leixlip last week, Chief Superintendent Gerard Roche said that ‘new evidence’ had led to the case being upgraded to murder.
Roche said that the young girls’ mother, Elizabeth Byrne (who still lives in the house where the fire occurred), was not surprised when she heard that the investigation had been upgraded.
Anyone who has any information regarding this case has been asked to contact the special incident room at Leixlip Garda Station on 01 6667800, or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666111.
With reporting by Cianan Brennan
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Strikes me as a little odd reporting sentences as a combination. It’s as if article is attempting to make their punishment out to be more severe than it actually is.
When you consider the fact that prisoners very often only serve about half of their sentences the headline might be more accurately written as
“Three brothers will spend roughly 3-4 years each in prison after string of robberies”
@Derek Murphy: and after effectively ensuring that severall sma towns and villages will no longer have ATMs.
Irish Judges: robbing banks?? 20 years!!
Also Irish Judges: se.x.ually assualted your own kids for a decade? Meh.. 5 years. Out in 3.
@Rob Gale: It’s actually 20 years combined.
@Hannah: They gave someone 30 years for kidnapping a wealthy business man. But do it to a child for their whole life and you get a suspended sentence. It’s shocking really. If we can give large sentences like that for these crimes how can they justify not giving them for child abuse?
@Rob Gale: neither sentence is anywhere near enough, joke
@Jonathan Barr: I fully agree with you.
We seriously need more prison spaces in this country.
@Chris Mc: why not export our prisoners to countries willing to take them. Who says they have to be imprisoned here ? The cost of a prisoner per year in ireland is easily in excess of 100k. Put that out to tender. The Chinese might house them for 10k per year. Going to prison might not be seen as so cushy then…..
Bit of a joke headline – 20 year combined. That means nothing – the two longest sentences were 8 yrs 9 months, with one year suspended. That means about 5 years and 10 months with remission! Very dishonest journalism!
@Ciaran Leonard: actually that would be 6 years and 6 months with standard remission
Is the €790,000 nicely tucked away for the release in a couple of years?
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