Gardaí are continuing to investigate the death nine years ago of a 10-week-old baby from Co Longford.
Doriana Kluska, from Cloondara, died at the Temple Street children’s hospital in Dublin on June 4th, 2017, after suffering a head injury.
Det Insp John Costello told Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Tuesday that a Garda investigation into the infant’s death was continuing. He sought a six-month adjournment to follow a new lead.
He said he thought there would have been more progress in the case but there has been “some traction” in the last six months.
READ MORE
The coroner, Dr Cróna Gallagher, noted the last time the case came before her, gardaí said matters were being progressed with a view to bringing criminal charges.
She adjourned the inquest to next February but asked the detective to report to her if matters developed in the meantime.
A death notice said Doriana would be sadly missed by her heartbroken parents, brothers, sister, other relatives, neighbours and friends.
A man and a woman were arrested for questioning in connection with the death in May 2018. They were both released without charge the following day.
Separately on Tuesday, the coroner adjourned the inquest into the death of James Whelan (29) after hearing gardaí were continuing to investigate his killing on April 3rd, 2022.
Whelan, a father of one, was shot dead at about 4.30am on Deanstown Avenue in the north Dublin suburb of Finglas. Gardaí at the time described the killing as a “major escalation” of a feud in the area.
Whelan was well known to gardaí for involvement in the drugs trade in the Finglas area from the time he was a teenager. When he was still in his teens, gardaí seized almost €30,000 in cash from him. At that time, though he was still a young man, he had more than 50 convictions, including for selling drugs.
On Tuesday, a Garda inspector asked the court for a seven-month adjournment to allow the force’s investigation into Whelan’s death to progress.
Gallagher scheduled the inquest to return before her next February. She told Whelan’s father, who was present in court, that he and his family had the ongoing sympathy of the court over the tragic loss.
