Overview
- Several timed threats were phoned to garda stations about the Tánaiste’s home, prompting security checks and searches by the Garda Dog Unit after his family was advised not to return.
- Detectives have found nothing sinister to date and suspect the calls may be part of an elaborate hoax, with a criminal investigation now opened into the phone threats.
- The Special Detective Unit is also investigating a recent direct message to a close family member on a Meta platform, and statements have been taken from Simon Harris and the relative.
- Earlier in the week, a woman in her thirties was arrested over Instagram threats to Mr Harris’s children and released without charge pending a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
- Investigators are pursuing digital forensics, including tracing IP data, as threats are believed to have been routed via encrypted services such as Telegram and involved efforts to conceal the sender’s identity.