Father says he always feared for his son

The father of Enda McLaughlin has said he always thought his son would die in tragic circumstances. Patrick McLaughlin choked back tears yesterday as he recalled how he spoke to his son only a week ago when he telephoned him from the Netherlands.

At his small cottage two miles outside Carndonagh in the townland of Glentogher, he said: “I honestly thought he had left Ireland behind and that he was going to make something of his life. Of course he had plenty of troubles here, but when he went abroad, I thought he was going to settle down.

“He called me about a week ago and we talked about this and that including the World Cup and who he thought were going to win it. He was in good form. He had phoned me at the start of May, the day after he arrived in Holland, and said he was okay and that he was settling down.”Mr McLaughlin said his son, a talented singer, was never really given a fair go at an ordinary lifeafter his mother walked out on him and the family at an early age. “I tried the best I could to put clothes on his back and food on the table, but it was difficult, he was always up against it. From his early teens he began to get in trouble, but the system let him down. He had mental health problems like his mother and he needed help but he didn’t get it,” he said.

Mr McLaughlin said gardaí had called to the house. “We were just told that Enda had been killed in a traffic accident but now all this stuff about knifings has come out. It is very hard for a father to hear.

“I spoke to the gardaí and they told me there was no evidence that Enda was involved in any of these things.”