Gardaí have been granted additional time to hold the teenager and have conducted several interviews with him since his arrest
A 16-year-old Galway teenager who stabbed an Army chaplain on Thursday night had been laying in wait to launch an attack on Defence Forces personnel due to grievances over Ireland’s overseas military activities, gardaí believe.
The incident, which left Fr Paul F Murphy (52) with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, is being treated as a possible terrorist attack by gardaí from the Special Detective Unit, the State’s primary counter-terrorism agency.
Gardaí have been granted additional time to hold the teenager and have conducted several interviews with him since his arrest on Thursday night. He is being accompanied by his mother during the interviews and has been of “limited assistance” so far, sources said.
Gardaí have searched his home and have examined his electronic devices. They believe he had become “radicalised to an extent” by conspiracy theories regarding Irish involvement in Mali and the Middle East.
