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Man burned to death in Phoenix Park

B.A._Baracus

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/1129/489854-body-phoenix-park/

Gardaí say a man who died in the early hours of today in an area of the Phoenix Park frequented by homeless people suffered catastrophic burn injuries.
The victim who was found at around 1am has still not been identified and Gardaí say they will have to rely on DNA and dental records.
He was in a sleeping bag which had caught fire in a wooded area near the Wellington Monument in the park.
The fire was noticed by Gardaí in a passing patrol car who went to the scene but the victim had sustained fatal injuries.
Gardaí say there appears to have been a homeless community living in the area where the man died.
A post mortem to establish whether the cause of death was accidental or deliberate is continuing this evening.
Gardaí have issued an appeal to anyone who frequents the area or anyone with information to contact them at Cabra Garda Station on 01-6667400.
They are also liaising with agencies that deal with homeless people.

It would seem that he was a homeless man bunking in the Phoenix park for the night. Horrific way to die. Cause of the fire has yet to be determined But it very could well have been murder.

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humanji

MOD: The case is before the courts, so we can't discuss it until the trial is over.

MOD: Trial is now over, so I've reopened the thread.

snubbleste

He appears to have been severely tortured before being set on fire. Imagine the pain he went through :mad:

when gardai investigated, they found Mr Donnelly’s body on fire, with an aerosol can in his crotch area & a canister with a blow torch attached was also found at the scene
Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy gave the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and noted areas of fire damage under the head and neck. She said that the skull was extensively fractured and the brain was injured, there was a v-shaped wound to a thumb and the left little toe had been freshly amputated.
The pathologist had concluded that he had received multiple blows to the head from a heavy object and that a lump hammer found beside the body could have been the weapon used.

http://www.thejournal.ie/homeless-man-phoenix-park-2085218-May2015/#comments

Femme_Fatale

I'd imagine living on the streets can be due to untreated severe mental illness pulling people in a strange direction.

[Deleted User]

seamus wrote: »

Uh, yes?

http://www.centralparkhistory.com/timeline/timeline_postww2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park#Crime

Crime has reduced drastically in central park since the 80's, but that's because the NYPD have been working hard at it.

It's a common feature of any open park in the world after dark, that people who don't want to be disturbed by police will make their way in there. As most articles note, however, parks tend to be many times safer than city streets, even in the dead of night.

That's what I mean- large areas of New York were horrible places to be... if I'm right, Times Square was a haven for junkies and crack-addicts in the 1980s, until it was cleaned up finally by Mayor Rudy Giuliani. It's insane to think that Dublin now seems to be like New York 20+ years ago.

What we need is for someone to come to power and actually want to clean the city up.

seamus

Deleted User wrote: »

Can you imagine something similar happening in Hyde Park? Or Central Park?

Uh, yes?

http://www.centralparkhistory.com/timeline/timeline_postww2.html

in the eight years from 1979 to 1986, thirty-five murders took place in Central Park alone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park#Crime

Crime has reduced drastically in central park since the 80's, but that's because the NYPD have been working hard at it.

It's a common feature of any open park in the world after dark, that people who don't want to be disturbed by police will make their way in there. As most articles note, however, parks tend to be many times safer than city streets, even in the dead of night.

dd972

seamus wrote: »

Perhaps this guy found some level of cameraderie between the homeless and in the absence of any dependents, saw no reason not to spend his time with his friends, even sleeping outdoors with them. Perhaps he was even carrying around large sums of cash so he could look after them while he was with them.

Whatever the reason he was sleeping rough, no doubt the cash was the reason he was targetted.

Maybe the victim wasn't 'all there', not necessarily afflicted by learning disabilities or mentally handicapped, but naive about the sort of people he was associating with, selling your home for €130K and living in the street seems a bit odd, letting all the other homeless types, many of whom would be hardcore recidivists and junkies know you've access to any sort of ready cash seems odder still.

A lot of other people would have gone to the UK picked up a house to live in for £80-£100K like you can in a lot of towns and cities over there and banked the spare cash.

Soft Falling Rain

Deleted User wrote: »

Phoenix Park is meant to be our main park in Ireland. Can you imagine something similar happening in Hyde Park? Or Central Park? Or any major park around the world. It's insane to think that there have been many murders, rapes, and assaults happening there.

Every major park comes with danger. The Phoenix Park is quite vast and has areas that attracts trouble, including where this happened, the Wellington Monument. But I'm sure every major park has similar areas that would be dangerous at night.

[Deleted User]

Phoenix Park is meant to be our main park in Ireland. Can you imagine something similar happening in Hyde Park? Or Central Park? Or any major park around the world. It's insane to think that there have been many murders, rapes, and assaults happening there.

BraziliaNZ

P.Walnuts wrote: »

It would be hard for that to be the case, since it doesn't exist.

this is worth a read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wick_effect

expectationlost

seamus wrote: »

Perhaps this guy found some level of cameraderie between the homeless and in the absence of any dependents, saw no reason not to spend his time with his friends, even sleeping outdoors with them. Perhaps he was even carrying around large sums of cash so he could look after them while he was with them.

Whatever the reason he was sleeping rough, no doubt the cash was the reason he was targetted.

and now we see the cameraderie he got, its no game

Soft Falling Rain

My name is URL wrote: »

Just goes to show that wealth or access to resources isn't always the cause for homelessness

It is a bizarre circumstance though and one that shouldn't be over analysed. For most sleeping rough it is a situation arising from difficult circumstances surrounding them.

seamus

Perhaps this guy found some level of cameraderie between the homeless and in the absence of any dependents, saw no reason not to spend his time with his friends, even sleeping outdoors with them. Perhaps he was even carrying around large sums of cash so he could look after them while he was with them.

Whatever the reason he was sleeping rough, no doubt the cash was the reason he was targetted.

[-0-]

Plenty of people have done it in an attempt to gain a different outlook on life. There have been a good few documentaries on homelessness, whereby the protagonist slept rough for months.

One of my favourite authors, John Moriarty, was homeless in London for a period. This wasn't by choice, he was literally penniless. George Orwell (Eric Blair) did it in order to be able to write about the lower levels of society accurately.

My name is URL

wazky wrote: »

Its insane that we still have people sleeping rough in such an affluent country.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/homeless-man-found-dead-in-phoenix-park-had-130k-in-bank-account-29803429.html

'Homeless' man found dead in Phoenix Park had €130k in bank account

A MAN who was killed while living rough in the Phoenix Park had around €130,000 in a bank account after selling his home eight years ago.

The victim is understood to be a Gerry Donnelly, who formerly lived in Tallaght in south Co Dublin.

Gardai said the victim, who was in his late 30s, had opted to live outdoors in the Phoenix Park on occasions as a "lifestyle" choice and was not a typical homeless person.

Officers last night confirmed a report in the Irish Independent yesterday that he had owned a house and had access to money.

They believe Mr Donnelly sometimes carried relatively large sums of money on him and had a considerable amount of cash with him in his sleeping bag.

Just goes to show that wealth or access to resources isn't always the cause for homelessness

danniemcq

Threads Merged

snubbleste

wretcheddomain wrote: »

Are you seriously worried about this?

Well this has 40 replies.
The horse thread has 276 replies.

Banjo String

gufc21 wrote: »

Yea a case of typing before thinking. I'm sure it would have to be a line of enquiry though I know its an escalation but there it does seem odd they are within a week of each other. That was my train of thought anyway

Jesus. I hope not.

R. I. P to the poor fella.

SparkySpitfire

KilOit wrote: »

Funny that no one is really bothering with this story, and yet such a uproar about a horse that turned out to be half bull****

Or cos it's early on a Saturday morning

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Hootanany wrote: »

its about 3 below this one

it wasn't when I started it, but sure any chance for a cheap shot!

seamus

There's always someone who can't wait to be outraged about people's lack of outrage :rolleyes:
The story yesterday morning was that this guy had probably fallen asleep with a cigarette and his sleeping bag went on fire. People die in fires all the time and you don't see ten page threads about it.

Now that the death is believed to be a murder you can be pretty sure people will take more notice.

I just hope the poor guy was dead or unconscious before being set on fire

Sunnyisland

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

A terrible way to die, I can't begin to imagine it.

I'd liken it to notoriously gruesome Mafia hits such as Tony 'the Ant' Spilotro grinding Billy M'Carthys head in a vice or John Gotti severing John Favara's still alive body with a chainsaw. (Favara had accidently run over and killed Gotti's 12 year old son Frankie in 1980.)

I wouldent liken it to them at all,they were all organised hits where as this IMO is just an unprovoked attract on a helpless homeless person,

Not that it makes much difference to any of the people murdered.

Guffy

Banjo String wrote: »

Yea a case of typing before thinking. I'm sure it would have to be a line of enquiry though I know its an escalation but there it does seem odd they are within a week of each other. That was my train of thought anyway