12 News Focus

The Sunday Business Post 12 News Focus October 7, 2018 DEATH IN THE DOCKLANDS Ten years after a young man drowned in the Grand Canal basin, a judicial report into the circumstances of his death has not offered the answers that his family were hoping for he ended up in the docklands area and what happened in the hours running up to his death. They believe those is- sues have never been properly investigated. As the tenth anniversary of his death approaches, his Mary Regan family have been furnished Public Affairs with a report by retired High Court judge Daniel Herbert, Editor ordered by the Department of Emma and Lorraine Kelly, whose Justice. It criticises the Garda ohn Kelly was at an response to emergency calls brother John (below) drowned at Grand optimistic point of his on the night of his death, but Canal Dock in Dublin a decade ago young life this time says the investigation there- ten years ago. The after was “thorough and suf- Picture: Fergal Phillips 24-year-old had just ficient”. completed an alcohol The Kelly family had hoped treatment course. A the report would bring them “real grafter” accord- some sense of closure. In- ing to his sister Lorraine, stead, they say, the report ready begun to open. to the 112 emergency phone A couple of minutes later, locating and interviewing J he had just started a new has left them unsatisfied and At the time, that part of line at 12.28am by a resident Garda command and control persons reported to them as job as a labourer and was sav- frustrated. They say it does not Britain Quay – a site which saying they could hear a man at Harcourt Street dispatched claiming to know what had ing to move to Australia with provide them with answers had been earmarked for the shouting “hey”. Garda com- the Irishtown Garda patrol car happened to the deceased”. his other sister, Amanda and to the many questions that U2 Tower – was a wasteland mand and control directed to the canal opposite the Port- But he concluded that her husband, Seanie. “He was remain. They see the review of rubble and rusting railings, mobile or foot patrols avail- view apartments. “when investigated, all this just sorting his stuff out,” said as a box-ticking exercise by close to an old lock and across able in the area to go to the The crew arrived at 12.43am supposed information was Emma, one of his five older politicians who wanted them from the O2 Arena. Now it is location and investigate. on the wrong side of the seen to be based on noth- sisters in a close-knit family to simply shut up. a construction site where a Ten minutes later, another apartments: the river Liffey ing but baseless loose talk, of eight. state-of-the-art office block resident phoned Irishtown rather than the canal side. surmise, conjecture, hearsay, But his life was cut short. is being built. Garda station and said a man They spent not more than self-delusion and perhaps In the early hours of October Botched The night of October 15 was had been shouting intermit- two minutes outside the pa- even worse after the de- 16, 2008 he perished in the very cold, windy and pitch tently, what sounded to her trol car before reporting back ceased’s family had offered murky waters of the Grand response dark. The public lighting had like “Claire”. She went out to ‘GOARR’– gone on arrival – a substantial reward for in- Canal basin in Dublin. He had The area of the docklands been disconnected from the the balcony and thought she back to command. formation”. boarded a train in Athy, Co where John drowned is si- supply the previous April, ac- saw a shape in the water. It A couple of minutes later, He said he was satisfied Kildare, earlier that evening multaneously one of the cording to the Herbert report, was cold and dark, and the another resident finally made that the cause of death was and after getting off at Heu- most central and one of the following an “unlawful and tide was really high. She was contact with Irishtown Gar- drowning and not traumatic ston Station, made his way most isolated parts of Dublin. extremely dangerous attempt told it was “not their area, that da station. She had, around injuries suffered before John’s towards the city’s docklands, The regeneration of the area, to abstract electricity from the it was Pearse Street area”, but 20 minutes earlier, phoned drowning. However, he said, instead of to his sister’s house where the river Liffey meets system”. that they would get someone directory enquiries, having “this does not rule out the where he was supposed to the canal, was in its early At about half past midnight, to check it out. The call was been woken by the intermit- possibility of an assault in the have been staying that night. stages in 2008. The gleaming residents in the Portview not recorded. It was not en- tent cries of a young man. course of which the deceased The Kelly family have buildings and hip cafés that apartments started hearing tered into the computerised She was directed to Pearse fell or was pushed into the struggled to understand how characterise it today had al- noise. The first call was made aided dispatch system. Street Garda station. She was water”. told that this was not in their jurisdiction and was given a number for Tallaght station Judicial review which gave her a number for The inquiry was ordered by Irishtown station. The issue Minister for Justice Frances had already gone into abey- Fitzgerald in April 2017, under ance because of the GOARR Section 42 of the Garda Act. It signal minutes earlier. was one of five cases sent for A second crew was dis- inquiry following a process of patched and, again, went to and a social security card. reviewing some 40 cases of the wrong place. Another res- “Unusually extensive injuries” alleged Garda malpractice., ident saw gardaí with flash- had been caused to the eyes, under a so-called indepen- lights at the river and went ears, nose, lips and neck. dent review mechanism. FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS AWARDS 2018 down to direct the crew to According to the report, But the Kelly family, and Chartered Accountants Ireland Leinster Society has announced the shortlist for its Published where they believed the voice the gardaí and medical others, say they had expected Accounts Awards for 2018 which reward companies for excellence in financial reporting in Ireland. to be coming from, near the practitioners said these were a lot more from the process barge. That crew requested caused by aquatic life. “In the they had entered into in good The Awards are sponsored by Euronext Dublin, (formerly the Irish Stock Exchange), which is now the assistance of Dublin Fire absence of anything to sug- The thought faith that this was a genuine part of Euronext, the leading pan-European exchange in the Eurozone, covering Belgium, France, Brigade gest violence to the person of giving up effort to establish account- Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal and the UK. This year’s shortlist includes a total of 26 public and At 12.57am, five gardaí, four or the commission of a crime, ability. Their solicitor Kevin female and one student garda, the scene was not preserved the battle Winters said the inquiry did private companies, including not-for-profit organisations. were standing at the edge of nor was the state pathologist not allow for cross-examina- The winners will be announced at a gala event in The Shelbourne Hotel the quay attempting to rescue called,” the report said. But to find tion of witnesses and was a on Thursday 8 November 2018 commencing at 7.30pm with Oliver Callan as MC. the man. There was a strong the family believe Kelly was “desk-top review”. outgoing tide. His head went the victim of an attack. the truth He said he could not ascer- under the water a minute later They point to a number of tain from the judge what wit- and, tragically, they were un- reasons to back up their claim. has never nesses had been interviewed, able to rescue him. First, items he had had in his nor could he access any tran- Judge Herbert found that possession were not recov- crossed their scripts of what they said. the Garda response to a num- ered with his body. These minds The Kelly family now plans ber of emergency calls was include a red and white bag to mount a judicial review of “confused, inappropriate from a shoe shop in Athy, a to-door inquiries in Portview the report’s findings and will and inadequate”. He said it blue plastic bag with some apartments, told interviewees submit a request to the attor- was “utterly reprehensible” cans of Dutch Gold, a social that it was a case of suicide. ney general for a fresh inquest that a female garda at Pearse welfare cheque, his phone The judge put this down to into John Kelly’s death. As the Street station wrongly told and cigarettes. They said a “inexperience or lack of dis- years pass, they have watched a woman who had phoned bracelet he had been wearing cretion”. his friends marry and start from her apartment balcony on his wrist was absent when John Kelly’s phone was families, and wonder what shortly before the man’s death his remains were found.

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