THE mother of two Limerick children who sustained serious burns when the family car was petrol bombed in Moyross 13 years ago, believes her son was saved by two youths who have never been identified.
Gavin Murray who was four years old at the time, along with his then six-year-old sister Millie, suffered life-changing injuries in the horrific crime.
Three young men were jailed for the attack. Jonathan O’Donoghue, then aged 17, of Pineview Gardens, Moyross was sentenced to eight years in prison with the final two suspended; John Mitchell, then aged 17, from Delmege Park, Moyross, was jailed for seven years with the final two years suspended and Robert Sheehan, then 16, also of Delmege Park, was sentenced to two years in a detention centre for young offenders.
Mr Sheehan was shot dead at a family wedding in Shannon on September 2, 2012 in a completely unrelated incident.
However, Sheila Murray has hit back at recent media reports that the Murray family did not blame Mr Sheehan for the attack.
She acknowledged that a relative had apparently informed the Sheehan family they did not blame Mr Sheehan, but she did not share this view.
“They just said they only blamed one person, but I disagree with that and the rest of the family disagree with it,” Ms Murray told the Limerick Post.
“The three of them were involved. The three of them were sentenced. They did it. I blame the three of them.”
Ms Murray blasted comments previously made by Mr Sheehan that he helped pull Gavin Murray from the burning car.
She acknowledged that, at the time, she paid Mr Sheehan €100 after she was told he had saved Gavin’s life.
However, she claimed she has since learned he did not take part in the rescue, and, that she has learned the identities of two youths whom she said did save Gavin.
“Everyone was saying Robert Sheehan saved Gavin but he didn’t. I, like a dope, gave him the hundred euro. They can’t keep saying he saved Gavin’s life and that he’s a hero, because he didn’t,” she said.
“At the time, I thought he saved Gavin. He didn’t save him. I know who saved him but they don’t want to be named,” Ms Murray added.
Shelia Murray said she and her children have had to move away from Limerick city to escape the nightmares.
She also hit out at comments by Mr Sheehan’s mother Majella Sheehan that she hoped to clear her son’s name, and that he had told her he had been told to plead guilty to charges relating to the arson in order to get a lesser sentence.
“It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that Gavin told me himself who took him out of the car. He knew himself who took him out of the car and he said it wasn’t Robert Sheehan,” Ms Murray said.
“But the story that has gone on for years and years that Robert saved the children. He didn’t save any of them. I took Millie out and others took Gavin out of the car.”
Ms Murray said the two youths she believes saved her son are still “traumatised over what happened that day”.
She said both men did too want to be identified.
“I’m tired of this. Why should Robert Sheehan go on and on for years as a hero when he never did what he said he did, just because the papers said he was a hero,” she added.
Gavin Murray said he recalls another man saving him: “I remember being in his arms. I remember he had hold of me.”
“Robert never did anything to help. That’s the main point,” he claimed.
“I’m sick of people saying they were after saving you, and I know well, myself, no matter what anyone else says, I know it wasn’t him. The others should get the credit they deserve,” he added.
Ms Murray continued: “We just want these rubbish stories to stop. That’s all.”
Gavin and Millie are still awaiting further ongoing treatment for their injuries.
Ms Murray said the events of the day will forever haunt both herself and her children.
“I looked in the mirror of the car and saw a flash out the corner of my eye. Millie stood up between the middle of the two front seats and the flames went up to the roof, up through Millie, and she was screaming ‘mam, mam, mam’, and Gavin started screaming as well.”
Gavin, whose left ear was burned off, said he will never forget the pain of being bathed in hospital for months afterwards, as doctors and nurses did their best to try to heal his burns.
“My worst memory are the baths. Anytime we had to take a bath, they had to take the bandages off. They’d soak you in water first, then take the bandages off but the skin would come off with it,” he recalled.
Gavin and his sister would be given “morphine lollipops” to try to block the pain, Ms Murray added.
“They screamed the whole hospital down at bath time. Obviously they were petrified,” she said
Bravely showing his scars, Gavin said: “I still have to get my hair done and my ear done. It’s either they take two of my ribs out to reform an ear, or I can get a magnetic ear that they can clip on and take off.”
He said that he would have been blinded if he had not protected his face with his hands, and, the skin around his mouth “gets very tight and it starts pulling on my lips”.
The scars run “a small bit across my chest, and up along my shoulders, and then almost three quarters of theway down my back”, he added.
“People say: ‘oh just forget about it’, but you can’t just get up one morning and it’s grand, and that I’ll forgive them and whatever.”
