The family of a man whose body lay undiscovered in a house in Cork for over two decades have expressed concern that the tragedy may not be an isolated incident.
An inquest in Mallow, Co Cork has heard that skeletal remains found in a boarded-up terraced house in Beecher Street in the town on January 13th last were subsequently identified as being those of the late Tim O’Sullivan.
His remains were identified after gardaí received a positive match with records from a local dentist who had treated him. He was discovered under a duvet on a bed in the house by two Cork County Council staff when they entered the boarded-up property after the local authority received reports of vermin infestation.
The plan was for council employees to change the lock on the house to allow Rentokil to go in.
The inquest heard evidence from Paul O’Donoghue of Cork County Council, who said that he couldn’t get the lock open so he and his colleagues had to kick the door in.
He noticed a considerable amount of post and leaflets inside the door of the property. Mr O’Donoghue decided to do a “quick sweep” of the property. He spotted that there was a bedroom on the left.
“I could see a bed in the middle of the floor. I then saw a shape of legs under the duvet, and a coat laid on top. I realised it was a human body.
"I went out to my colleagues on the street and I said, “I’m not 100 per cent sure, but I think I saw a body on the bed." They followed me in. We then observed with a lamp that it was a body. Mick Carroll (his colleague) then contacted the gardaí. I did not know who lived in this house. I never observed anyone entering or leaving.”
Another council employee John O’Dell in Mallow said that they had received a message from a local councillor in 2014 about broken windows at the property.
Land registry
He said that they could not establish who owned the property as it was not recorded on the Land Registry.
As far as they could determine, it was derelict. Mr O’Dell said in January 2015 he sent a request that the windows be boarded up, and this work was carried out.
Meanwhile, Garda Siobhan Costello of Mallow Garda Station attended at the scene after the workers called gardaí, having made the grim discovery. She told the inquest that the workers had advised her that they had been at the house as a result of a compulsory purchase order put on the house by Cork County Council.
“They had been there on the date in question as there had been a problem with rats. (Another Garda) and I entered the house. I immediately noticed a large amount of post and brochures on the ground.
"I entered the front room and immediately turned left into what looked like a bedroom. There I observed a bed in a skeletal manner laid on a bed. It had a blanket laid over it. All that was visible to the eye was the head and everything else was covered by a blanket.”
Garda Costello said the scenes of crime officers were contacted to attend the scene. Local GP Dr Marian Donovan was called to officially pronounce the death of the man. The body was subsequently brought to the morgue in Cork University Hospital for a postmortem examination.
Sgt Eileen Kelly of Mallow Garda Station said in her evidence that she searched through documents found in 9 Beecher Street in an effort to identify the deceased.
Receipts
She found amongst other items receipts from a dental practice, a memorial card from 1980, a receipt from Tesco from the 9th of January 2001, an AIB book in the name of Timothy O’Sullivan and diary entries from the 9th, 10th and 11th of January 2001.
In one of the diaries Mr O’Sullivan had noted that he had gone to Tesco “for the first time”.
Social welfare records indicated that Mr O’Sullivan had been in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance from October 4th 2000 to January 23rd, 2001.
His claim closed automatically as and from January 23rd, 2001 as he failed to collect three payments in a row and the system automatically closes a claim when three payments go uncollected at the post office. Mr O’Sullivan had missed collections on the 9th, 16th and 23rd of January 2001.
Coroner Dr Michael Kennedy said that in all probability Mr O'Sullivan, who was born in Cahirsiveen in Co Kerry in 1939, had died in the property on a date unknown between the 9th and the 23rd of January 2001.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster gave an account of her findings at postmortem. She said that the remains were “totally skeletal except for some mummification".
She reassured a nephew of the deceased who was present in court for the inquest that no evidence of trauma or fracture was identified. Dr Bolster said that there was no suggestion that the late Tim O’Sullivan died in any manner other than "peacefully" in his bed. Whilst no cause of death could be determined, there was no suggestion of foul play.
Family
A statement was read in to the record from Maureen O’Sullivan, a sister of the deceased.
She said that the late Tim O’Sullivan hailed from a family of five. She stated that Tim was the firstborn child, with all of his other siblings being UK nationals.
“Both of my parents are originally from Cahirsiveen. Tim used to come over on holiday (from the UK) and stay where my Mam and Dad are from. Not long before my mother passed away (in 1990) I have been living here in Ireland since 1972.
"Tim was married when he moved over to Ireland. They were not long married and she (his wife) would have moved back to England.
"I would have contacted him by letter and I would have wrote regularly to him and he would have wrote back to me. A year or two after my mother passed away he stopped writing. I presumed that he had gone back to England.
"My sister Noreen who lives in Australia would have called to Tim’s house. She said that the house was boarded up. She said that she called to neighbours who said that he was gone shopping or gone away. She said she called to the pub across the road and they said the same.
"Noreen went to the guards that time and they hadn’t seen him and that he had probably gone back to England. Noreen said that she did call the station a few times, but she never spoke to the guard she met when she called to the station.”
Ms O’Sullivan said that she did not know who had boarded up the house of her brother. She said that Tim was never reported missing because the family thought he had gone back to the UK.
She went to Mallow on July 24th, 2003 in the hope of seeing her brother. She knocked on the door and didn’t get an answer. She looked in the window and “it looked like nobody had been living there in a while.”
Ms Foster said that neighbours told her they had not seen Tim in a while. She said gardaí told her that they presumed Tim had gone back to England.
“We assumed he (the garda) was going to look in to it further. I remember phoning the garda a week later. He did not provide any further information about Tim. I expected that they (gardaí) had gone in to the house but obviously no one did.”
A sum in punts equivalent to €8,000 was found in the property. There was no sign of forced entry or anything suspicious.
Dr Kennedy joined gardaí in offering his condolences to the family of the deceased. He said that it was a source of consolation to his relatives that there was nothing to suggest that he experienced anything other than “a peaceful death”.
In a nation with over 180,000 derelict properties, we worry that similar cases could remain hidden
He said: "We are deeply concerned that this tragedy may not be an isolated incident. In a nation with over 180,000 derelict properties, we worry that similar cases could remain hidden. We firmly believe that the current derelict housing legislation in Ireland is insufficient.”
Ms O’Sulllivan said that the existing system and processes seem inadequate.
“Sending notification letters to the derelict house, erecting a notice and waiting extended periods, often exceeding twelve months, before commencing the CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order) process, is an impediment to timely intervention.
Furthermore, local authorities appear to not have the authority to conduct the necessary legal searches in both the Registry of Deeds and Land Registry to determine the owner and to carry out subsequent searches to contact any next of kins before initiating or during the CO process.
By Olivia Kelleher
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