Source: Examiner, The (Ireland) Contact: http://www.examiner.ie/ Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 1998 Pubdate: 11 Jan 1998 Author: Anne Lucey EX-DEALER'S COUNCIL HOUSE RUINED IN FIRE TWO units of Tralee Fire Brigade were called to a fire at the home of self-confessed drug dealer Michael Bentley in Tralee yesterday afternoon. Bentley claims he was abducted from his home on New Year's Day by men suspected of being members of the IRA in North Kerry. Yesterday the ground floor of the house, at 128 Shanakill, where he lives with his partner Joanne Purcell and their five children aged between five years and two months, was damaged by fire. The fire started at 4.00 pm and Tralee gardai have detained a female in relation to the incident. Yesterday's fire is not connected with the alleged abduction, gardai said. Last night, the Shanakill Resident's Association said they do not want Michael Bentley back in the local authority housing estate if and when the damage to his house is repaired. "We utterly condemn the abduction on New Year's Day. We are liaising with the gardai and with Tralee UDC with regard to Michael Bentley and we do not support vigilante abductions, if that is what took place," John McMahon of the Shanakill Resident's Committee said. "But we don't want them back here. Old ladies on this estate are terrified to leave their own houses because of the traffic of youths bombed out of their minds up and down to 128. "Michael Bentley says he has given up dealing in drugs. We think otherwise," John McMahon said. He said the Resident's Association was getting bad press and being portrayed as bully boys since they marched on the home of Michael Bentley last June. "This is a human story. There are five small children involved here," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Mike Gogulski