Bomb damages ex-prison officer's home
Loyalists have been blamed for leaving an explosive device outside an ex-prison officer’s home in Northern Ireland.
Damage was caused to the front door of the house at Donaghadee, Co Down, but nobody was hurt.
It was the latest in a series of attacks by loyalists.
The former officer had quit the prison service to look after his sister who was left disabled by a hit-and-run car driver in Belfast.
His elderly parents were also in the house at the time the bomb was planted.
Previous attacks on prison staff had been linked to violent protests at Maghaberry jail, near Lisburn, Co Antrim, where loyalists and republicans had demanded to be segregated.
The Northern Ireland Office has agreed to keep them apart, but additional security arrangements costing an estimated £7m (€10m) have to be put in place and will not be completed until late this year.
Finlay Spratt, chairman of the Prison Officers Association, said: “The people running around doing these attacks are thugs, cowards and hooligans.”
