A second-time offender, who is currently serving a prison term for grave offences, was taken into custody on Friday, under the doubt that he might be the one behind the bomb threat directed at the family residence of Taoiseach Simon Harris. This assumption, considering the fact that a convict may be associated, has been the investigation squad’s primary point of focus ever since the investigation was initiated towards the end of last month.
A warning call about a bomb planted at the residence of Harris in Greystones, Co Wicklow, was made to the Samaritans. A search squad from Garda was sent to Harris’s family property, but no threatening items were found, and his spouse and young offspring stayed in the house throughout.
Right from the beginning, the Garda harboured suspicions that a middle-aged detainee, who now has been allowed to use the Samaritans line from his cell due to past serious occurrences, might have been involved in the incident. They speculated that he might have used a secondary phone within the prison to contact the Samaritans.
In response to inquiries, the Garda Headquarters confirmed that a male in his 50s had been arrested by the Garda on Friday. The arrest was part of the ongoing investigation into threats made against a government representative in June. “Currently, the man, who is in his fifties, is being kept in custody under the Criminal Justice Act’s Section 4 (1984) at a Garda station in the Garda Eastern Region” was the official statement. No additional information was disclosed at the time.
An anonymous call was received via the Samaritans’ helpline a little before 6pm on the evening of Friday, June 26th. The caller claimed that there was an explosive device at the Harris family residence. The organisation acted promptly and raised the alarm immediately.
At the time of the incident Harris, who was in Dáil, expressed that the bomb hoax was intended to frighten and disturb his family, labelling the events as intolerable.
Mr Harris avowed his reluctance to comment further, aside from expressing his view that the situation is entirely unacceptable. He queried the aptness of dubbing such ploys as ‘hoaxes’, which are certainly intended to instil fear and distress. With a young family under his care, the gravity of such threats is not lost on him.
He firmly emphasised the unacceptable nature of such conditions, bemoaning the labelling of such incidents as ‘protestations’ in press coverage when individuals present themselves outside his residence.
This troubling incident marks the second instance where a standing cabinet member has been subject to such threats. Justice Minister Helen McEntee and her relatives have been victims of recurrent threatening acts, including fake declarations about bombs, which resulted in mandatory evacuation of their residence.
In another related case from March, a man previously convicted of rape, who created a fake bomb threat to Ms McEntee’s residence from Portlaoise’s Midlands Prison, was prosecuted and given two more years in the penitentiary.
Separately, law enforcement are currently assessing threats made against Mr Harris’ family via Instagram over the preceding weekend.