Man lay stabbed outside home overnight, inquest hears

Shane O’Connor lay injured with wound in heart for three hours before being found

A 22-year old man lay outside his house in Dublin for up to three hours before he was found with a fatal stab wound, an inquest has heard.

Shane O’Connor, a father of one from St Donagh’s Road, Donaghmede, died from a stab wound that penetrated his heart.

He was found by a care assistant on her way to work at 7am on October 29th, 2012. “My instinct was to stop, it could have been one of my sons lying there,” Elizabeth McCormack said.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard Mr O’Connor had been at a house party the previous night with his girlfriend Sabrina Hayes and others. A row broke out after the party.

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Witnesses said Shane O’Connor and another man, Ross Hyland, had exchanged blows.

Det Insp Kenneth Keelan said gardaí were satisfied Mr O’Connor returned to his house after the struggle on the street. “After that we don’t really know what happened until he was discovered the following morning,” Det Insp Keelan said.

Mr O’Connor had a wrench in his hand when he was found and he was lying on a pliers and a screwdriver, the court heard.

A number of witnesses declined to appear at the inquest into Mr O’Connor’s death.

In a deposition read in court Mr Hyland said that “all of a sudden” a row had broken out between him and Mr O’Connor. He said Mr O’Connor ran off towards Donaghmede and he and a friend, Thomas Carroll, followed him down St Donagh’s Road.

“I didn’t want to leave bad blood between us,” he said. The next he saw was “Shane coming at me. He hit me in the side of the head with something solid.”

Mr Hyland said he fell to the ground. He said he and Mr Carroll learned of the fatal stabbing via teletext the following morning.

The victim’s father, Mark Moran, said the family was initially unaware it was their son found outside the family home while gardaí closed off the area as a crime scene. Later they became worried and went to the Garda.

“They brought us into an incident room and said Shane was dead, that’s who had been murdered outside our house,” Mr Moran said.

Det Insp Keelan said two chief suspects were arrested and a file was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions but no prosecution was brought. “It remains very much an open investigation,” he said.

The jury returned an open verdict.

Speaking after the inquest, the O’Connor family repeated their call for anyone with information about their son’s death to come forward.