GARDAÍ BELIEVE a man stabbed to death outside his family home in the early hours of yesterday morning may have lain wounded on the suburban street for a number of hours before he was discovered.
The dead man had not been formally identified last night but had been named locally as Shane O’Connor, a 22-year-old with at address at St Donagh’s Road, Donaghmede, north Dublin.
He was known to the gardaí and had been investigated twice for assaults on his girlfriend in which bottles were used on both occasions. Late last year he was jailed for 16 months for one of those attacks and had recently been released.
He had not completed his sentence but had been given open-ended temporary release which was to be renewed until his sentence period had expired. It is a form of early release used by the Irish Prison Service to ease overcrowding and make way for new committals.
O’Connor was found wounded outside his family home at about 7am yesterday. Gardaí received an emergency call when he was found on the road. An ambulance arrived at the scene and O’Connor was taken to Beaumont Hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival.
Gardaí have launched a murder inquiry and believe they can account for the dead man’s last known movements until about 3am yesterday.
They believe he was out socialising with his girlfriend and others on Saturday night and into yesterday morning at two pubs, in Raheny and Clonshaugh, both in north Dublin. Gardaí are working on the theory that he was stabbed outside his home some time after 3am after making his way there.
The stretch of road where he was found injured is a high-density local authority housing estate and gardaí are hopeful some local people may be able to provide information that would aid the investigation.
There was a disturbance in the area in the early hours of yesterday morning which is believed to have been reported to the Garda. However, it is unclear if that disturbance was linked to O’Connor’s fatal stabbing.
Members of his family were asleep in the house overnight and were unaware as he lay wounded on the footpath outside. The street was sealed off immediately after gardaí arrived at the scene.
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau had erected a tented structure over the spot where Mr O’Connor was found in order to protect the scene from the elements and preserve any forensic evidence that may have been present.
However, gardaí had sealed off a large stretch of road and members of the force were examining a number of stretches of the thoroughfare as well as a number of parked cars. They were trying to establish if a row may have taken place along the street or if O’Connor may have made his way injured towards his home before collapsing just metres from his front door.
The motive for the murder remains unclear though gardaí are trying to establish if O’Connor had become involved in any disputes while in jail or if he had been threatened by anyone in the weeks since his release.
The investigation into the murder is based at Coolock Garda station. Supt Ronan Galligan urged anybody in the Donaghmede area who knew O’Connor and may have information that would help solve the crime to come forward. He said gardaí were especially keen to speak to anyone who was on St Donagh’s Road between 3am and 7am yesterday.
O’Connor was jailed in November 2011 for 16 months on two counts of assault causing harm. His girlfriend was the victim on both occasions.
