In what is regarded as the most serious threat to the news media in the Irish Republic since the murder of Veronica Guerin, Sunday World crime editor Paul Williams has been given roundtheclock police protection.
This follows the discovery of an elaborately constructed dummy car bomb placed underneath Williams’ car outside his Dublin home.
The dummy car bomb is the latest in a series of threats against the Sunday World journalist – acid was poured over his car some weeks ago.
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Williams has said he was almost certain the threats were linked to the banned republican paramilitary group, the INLA, whose criminal activities he has exposed in the Sunday World.
An army bomb-disposal team that went to Williams’ home insisted that the crime editor, his wife and two children should leave their home while the suspect device was checked out.
More than 100 other local residents were evacuated while a controlled explosion was carried out.
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Speaking on Tv channel RTE 1, Williams vented his anger by saying: “I am staying at my job. I don’t care what these bastards want to do with me. I’m staying right here.”
He said the Sunday World was equally determined not to be intimidated.
“There is a right of free speech in this country,” he said. “No one is going to tell us where to stop. We have the right to tell the people what is going on.”
By Des Cryan in Dublin
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