A Northern Ireland court heard yesterday that Mr Garfield Gilmour, the 34-year-old Bally money salesman accused of the murder of the three young Quinn brothers, allegedly had a "grievance" against their family, in particular their uncle.
Mr Gordon Kerr QC, prosecuting, also told the Belfast Crown Court sitting in Coleraine that because of the impasse at Drumcree in Portadown there was considerable tension in the predominantly Protestant Carnany Park estate in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, where the boys lived with their mother, Christine, and her partner.
As the packed courtroom listened in silence to the prosecution case against Mr Gilmour, from Newhill, Ballymoney, the boys' mother was overcome with emotion and left the chamber.
Mr Kerr told Lord Justice McCollum of her brave attempts to save her sons after hearing their shouts of "Mummy, smoke" in the early hours of July 12th last year.
He said she could not find her boys in the dense smoke and was persuaded to jump to safety by neighbours. It was clear there was nothing she could do to help her sons.
Firemen using breathing apparatus found one boy in the bedroom, crouched face down. His two brothers were found by the window of their mother's bedroom.
When taken to an ambulance, Richard (11), Mark (10) and Jason, just four days past his ninth birthday, were all dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.
"Prior to the terrible events of this night in question, a number of the members of the Quinn family had lived in the estate, but as a result of a number of incidents preceding the 12th of July, Christine Quinn and her three sons were the last remaining," said Mr Kerr.
The family had just moved into the house, which had been left vacant by Christine's sister, Collette, six days before the petrol-bomb attack which claimed the lives of the three brothers.
Mr Kerr said that three months earlier the boys' uncle, Mr Colm Quinn, was forced to flee his home after an attack. He returned, only to be confronted by Mr Gilmour and two men.
Mr Gilmour was arrested on July 17th last year. Mr Kerr said: "The Crown case is that Gilmour appears to have, or there is evidence of a grievance with the Quinns, or Colm Quinn in particular."
He said that on the night of the petrol-bombing Mr Gilmour drove the two men who had earlier confronted Colm Quinn to attack the Quinn family. He knew a petrol-bomb was to be involved and had heard "specifically that Colm Quinn was to be attacked".
"The Crown say Gilmour took his part in a group which attacked the house where the purpose was to set that house on fire, and that the circumstances in which that was done, including the time and, the Crown would say, the obvious occupation of the house, was done in the contemplation that the occupants would be killed."
The trial of Mr Gilmour, who denies murdering the three brothers, attempting to murder their mother, her friend, Christina Archibald, and her partner, Raymond Craig, and the arson of their home, is expected to last at least a fortnight.
A vivid account of the firebombing was given by Mr David Heatherington, a neighbour. He told the court of talking to Richard, while he was trapped inside his burning home.
Mr Heatherington said he had heard a loud bang around 4.20 a.m. and looked outside to see "dark smoke" coming from the Quinn home. He saw a large hole in the living-room window.
"I went outside to see Richard Quinn at a window. He said he was getting hot. He said he was frightened and he said his feet were burning. I asked him if he could get out, and he said he couldn't," added Mr Heatherington.
Earlier, a statement from the boy's mother was read to the court. She said she had been awoken by "the wains shouting `Mummy, smoke'.
"The house was absolutely full of black smoke and I found it very hard to breathe, but as I made my way to the wains' room I was still shouting at Raymond to help me. I reached the wains' room. I couldn't find them. I went to the window in the wains' room and started screaming for help."
Ms Quinn said people outside were shouting to her to jump, and the next thing she remembered was being in an ambulance and hearing her "wains are all right", only to be told later in hospital they were dead.
Her friend, Christina Archibald, said all she could remember was being wakened by Christine and finding the room full of smoke.
Ms Archibald said she followed Christine who had gone to her boys' room, and tried to find a way out. In the smoke she fell down the stairs, landing by the front door, through which she escaped.
Outside she could see flames billowing from the living-room and saw Christine by a bedroom window screaming: "Where's Raymond and the wains?"
The trial continues today.