MURDER FLAT LOADED WITH EXPLOSIVES

The Dutch apartment where three Irishmen were horrifically mutilated
and murdered was loaded with explosives.

In an official statement, yesterday, the Public Prosecutorís office
confirmed that two Dutchmen charged with the murders of Co. Tipperary
brothers Vincent, 29, and Morgan, 21 Costello of Bansha and their 24
year old friend Damien Monahan from Ennis. Co. Clare confessed to
murdering them and setting fire to the apartment.

According to a reliable source, the luxury flat where the Irishmen
were discovered by firemen early on April 29 last was loaded with
explosives. The bodies of the three friends had been doused with
petrol and set alight and the gas had been left on. The emergency
services arrived at the apartment block where over 1,000 people live
after a call from a resident who smelled smoke and gas.

Experts were brought in to deactivate a large amount of explosives
found in the flat. It is unclear as to whether the explosives were
already there or whether they were put there by the murderers of the
three Irishmen. Mrs Kitty Nooy, spokeswoman for the Public
Prosecutorís Office confirmed last night: ìmaterial was found in the
apartment that has our interest and is being investigated.î The two
Dutchmen will go on trial after the summer. Both were taken into
custody within days of the killings. One of them, identified as
Michael B, 22, from the Hague, was already in prison charged with an
armed robbery when arrested in connection with the murders following
an anonymous tip off.

He is described as a friend of Damien Monahan, and when arrested he
was about to receive special leave from jail because his girlfriend
was having a baby. He has admitted being at the murder scene, but
denied killing the Irishmen.

His accomplice and friend, 20 year old Van B, who lived with his
mother in a village close to the apartment, is a friend of the first
man. Both are also accused of carrying out robberies at homes in the
seaside town of Scheveningen and threatening to shoot people. A police
source said that both men were out of their minds on drugs when they
carried out the horrific killings.