A mother of two is planning to move house after an unprovoked series of vandalism attacks on her home in Grange Crescent has left her with two frightened children and bills of €1,300.
“I’m in for a transfer, I have to at this stage, and if they don’t I’ll have to go private. I have an appointment with one of my TDs tomorrow morning,” confirmed Catherine Maloney.
The first incident occurred at 4.30am on Tuesday June 12, when a sittingroom window was smashed while Ms Maloney and her two children slept in the house.
Then, on Monday evening, June 18, her attackers returned and smashed another sittingroom window, as well as the front patio, and roared threats to burn the family out.
“Look, even if it was said through drink, it was a threat said to me,” said Ms Maloney, who had to stay with relatives in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
A woman in her thirties from the neighbourhood was arrested in relation to the June 18 incident, brought for charge to the District Court yesterday (June 22 ), and was remanded on continuing bail until July 27.
A male juvenile was also arrested in relation to the the first attack, and a file is still being prepared on him for the DPP.
“People are disgusted with this sort of carry-on. It’s a disgrace that the neighbours in the area have to be kept up at night by this sort of anti-social behaviour. It’s giving the area a bad name,” said Ms Maloney.
“We’re back in the house now, but the minute I hear ‘fire’ what with the brother’s house, that’s it,” Ms Maloney was referring to the fire in her brother’s nearby house last August when neighbours helped most of his family escapre through an upstairs window, before fireman arrived and rescued the youngest daughter from under her bed in the smoke-filled house.
The fire was ruled as an electrical accident- and is not related to the incidents of the last week and a half.
“The young one [seven-year-old daughter] doesn’t want to stay in the house any more.
“I don’t know if it’s over. I hope the courts will sort it out, but I can’t tell you at this stage,” she said.
