Kitchen blind saved me from pipe bomb says Tobermore man

The man says he had gone for a glass of milk and as soon as he switched on the light he heard a thud outside followed by a flash and bang.

“If the blind had not been down I would have been killed,” he told the MAIL.

The blast was heard over a wide area and broke windows and damaged the back door in the house at Castle Park. Windows were also broken in neighbouring property at Calmore Park.

The man who asked not to be identified for the sake of his family, has lived in the villge for five years with his partner and three children, aged four, two and one,

He says the family are at a loss as to why they were singled out for attack.

“There are rumours going round about me drug dealing but these are pure nonsense,” he said.

“I have nothing to do with drugs and the police have been through the house after the blast and found nothing.”

He thinks the attack might have been a case of mistaken identity, and his house may have been linked to another house in the estate in which four men were attacked by a masked gang earlier in the year.

“A car belonging to one of these men had broken down and sat outside my house for six days,” he said.

“That’s all I can think off. But attacking a house with kids in it is way out of order.”

The family has no plans to return to the house in Tobermore although the man says that, personally, he would go back but “my pride has to come second to my family’s safety”.