A 23-year-old man is expected to appear in court in Belfast today charged with the murders of the three Quinn children, who burned to death in their home in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, on July 12th. The man, who is from Ballymoney, is one of six men who were being questioned yesterday by RUC detectives.
The other five men are expected to remain in custody for a number of days. The RUC have released two other men who had been arrested and questioned since the murders of Richard (10), Mark (nine) and Jason (seven) Quinn.
Under emergency legislation in Northern Ireland, persons being questioned about "terrorist-related" crime can be held without charge for seven days. RUC sources have continued to deny reports from loyalist sources that the fire bomb attack on the Quinn home was anything other than a sectarian attack.
According to RUC sources in north Antrim, the attack on the Quinn home happened as a number of loyalists left a burning barricade across the entrance to the Carnany estate and moved towards the Quinn house, apparently with the intention of fire bombing a Catholic home.
The attack was one of 130 to 140 fire bomb attacks on Catholic-owned houses, mostly in counties Antrim and Down, during the week of rioting and disturbances surrounding the Orange protest at Drumcree.
It has emerged that many of the attacks were carefully planned, with the loyalist attackers using fire bombs containing petrol mixed with sugar or washing-up liquid to give adhesive qualities to the burning fuel and make the houses catch fire more quickly.
In at least two instances the fire bombs were laced with other dangerous substances. RUC officers in Ballymena found fire bombs on July 8th which contained nitric acid in the loyalist Glarryford and Drumtara areas of the town.
Forensic analysis of fire bombs thrown at the homes of Catholics in a small private housing estate in Lurgan, Co Armagh, on July 9th showed that they contained the poisonous horticultural weed killer, Paraquat. The local RUC said the intention appeared to have been to create poisonous fumes in the houses as well as to start fires.