Limerick man shot at family home while four-year-old girl was asleep inside

Detective Sean O’Connor told the court: ‘I find it very hard to believe he didn’t know there was anyone in the house’

Published 9th Jul 2026, 20:55 BST Liam 'Lika' Casey outside Limerick Courthouse I PICTURE: Brendan Gleeson Detective Sean O’Connor told the court: ‘I find it very hard to believe he didn’t know there was anyone in the house’ Sign up to our Limerick Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Limerick Live within your account.

A MAN who shot at a house with a 12 gauge barrel shotgun while a four-year-old child was asleep inside, is to be sentenced at Limerick Circuit Court.

Liam ‘Lika’ Casey, 43, with an address at Hyde Road, Prospect, has pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with the intent to endanger life and / or cause serious injury to property at a house at Meagher Close in the early hours of November 8, 2024.

The court heard that Mr Casey tapped at the house door four times before shooting. Inside the house at the time of the shooting were a married couple in their sixties, and their two young grandchildren.

Detective Garda Sean O’Connor, confirming the facts of the case with Barrister for the State John O’Sullivan, said he believed the significance of the tapping was to draw someone to the door, and that the inhabitants of the house were “absolutely” at risk of suffering injury.

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The court heard that Mr Casey then fled the scene in a car driven by a man who was referred to in court as ‘Mr X’. The Armed Support Unit, the Emergency Response Unit, and gardaí came to the scene following the incident.

A garda later found a car discarded in the Ballinacurra Gardens area at approximately 3am. The car had shoelaces tied in loops over the car registration plates, and the licence plate on the car showed a match for a vehicle stolen from Dublin. The shoelaces, Detective Sean O’Connor confirmed, were used to evade detection from gardaí.

The Ballinacurra waste ground was searched by gardaí several days later and a sawn off shotgun was found with two balaclavas, a tracksuit trousers, a shoe and gloves.

Mr Casey was interviewed by gardaí six times. The man claimed that he was spurred on by others to shoot at the home. He told gardaí in the final interview: “It had to be done”. Mr Casey said in an interview: “I wasn’t out to do any harm, my intention was that nobody was in the house”. Detective O’Connor told the court: “I find it very hard to believe he didn’t know there was anyone in the house.”

Before Mr Casey pleaded guilty, a trial took place over the course of a day. The woman who was inside the house at the time of the shooting read out a Victim Impact Statement. “There were gun shots, he shot right up the stairs,” she said. The woman said through tears: “I am still frightened to this day. I can’t sleep”.

Another resident of the home gave evidence of the shooting, in the court. “I thought I was going to be killed,” he said. “There was only two feet between me and the door.”

Mr O’Sullivan told the court that Mr Casey shot a young man, Mark Kirwan, in the legs with a sawn off shotgun over a drug debt in 2010. The barrister told the court that Mr Casey has two previous convictions for the possession of firearms.

Barrister Mark Nicholas, representing Mr Casey, submitted a letter of apology from the man to the court. In the letter, the man wrote that Limerick has not been good to him. Mr Nicholas said that Mr Casey having previous convictions for firearms isn’t helpful, but it’s not determinative. The barrister described the victims of the shooting as “decent people”. The crime, he said, was unacceptable, reckless and dangerous. Mr Nicholas further stated: “There was another person in the car who was not brought before the court.”

Judge Colin Daly adjourned the sentencing to a later date in July.