Cavan murder suspect remains in Garda custody

Local man can be held without charge until the weekend

The body of Patricia Kierans discovered in a house in Bailiboro, Co Cavan, is removed from the scene last Saturday. Photograph: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.
The body of Patricia Kierans discovered in a house in Bailiboro, Co Cavan, is removed from the scene last Saturday. Photograph: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

The chief suspect for the murder of Patricia Kierans in her family home in Co Cavan is still in Garda custody this morning and can be held without charge until the weekend.

The man was arrested in the early hours of last Friday morning when he gave himself up after having engaged in an armed standoff with gardai for around nine hours.

He spent the period barricaded into Nixy’s The Square pub in Bailieborough armed with a shotgun.

While arrested and taken into Garda custody immediately the siege ended at around 3.3am on Friday, he was admitted to Cavan General Hospital on Friday afternoon, where he remained until tea time on Sunday.

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At that point his period in custody was reactivated, after it had been suspended when he was taken to hospital. That means most of his detention period of up to seven days remained intact when he was returned to Garda custody on Sunday.

The 56-year-old local man is being questioned about the murder of mother of four Ms Kierans, who was found shot dead at her home on the Drumbannon estate in Bailieborough last Thursday evening.

Conor Lally

Conor Lally

Conor Lally is Security and Crime Editor of The Irish Times