Quality of postmortems on Stardust fire victims ‘very variable’, coroner told

A failure to properly record where the Stardust victims’ bodies were found, coupled with “very variable” quality of the postmortems, has made it impossible to make “any meaningful” statement on how the 1981 fire, in which 48 people died, affected individual victims, Dublin Coroner’s Court has heard.

Forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd gave evidence on Tuesday as inquests into the deaths resumed after a Christmas break and the fourth and final module of the process began.

The inquests into deaths of the 48, aged 16 to 27, in the fire at the north Dublin nightclub in the early hours of February 14th, 1981, began in April with the reading of pen-portraits of the deceased. Module one then heard from management and staff, with modules two and three hearing from patrons on the night, members of the public who saw the fire, and emergency responders.

Module four will hear pathologists’ testimony on the causes of the deaths and from fire experts. Pathologists’ evidence would include “very personal evidence for each of the families”, coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said.

Your top stories on Wednesday

---

Stripe weighs deal for new Dublin headquarters at Wilton Park

---

Busby Babes’ close call with Rovers shows Dublin once had the talent to call itself a European soccer city

---

“People think ‘there are hostages – it is what it is’. But there are families who cannot carry on with their lives”

---

She said it would be “scientific, clinical, medical, complex evidence” and would include details on what caused each death. Addressing the families present in court and watching online, Dr Cullinane said the evidence would in each case relate “to their lost member of the family”.

“It is a difficult position and I understand that certain families will not wish to hear this evidence or view it,” she said. “Others may wish to do so ... Families can be reassured that whether they observe the proceedings or choose not to that all the very personal evidence will be dealt with in the most respectful manner that I can achieve.”

A number of overview reports on victim identification procedures, the survivability of the fire and the toxic effects of the fire were read by Dr Shepherd, engaged by coroner, on Tuesday.

He was joined on the stand by Dr Nat Cary and Dr Ben Swift, forensic pathologists engaged by Phoenix Law representing the families of 47 victims. Dr Marjorie Turner, assistant State Pathologist engaged by Brabazon solicitors for the family of Marie Kennedy (17), did not appear on Tuesday.

Dr Shepherd said while a “body-map” had been drawn in the aftermath of the blaze indicating where 42 of the deceased had been found, these did not indicate which individuals’ remains were found where.

While nowadays in a mass-fatality incident each deceased would be allocated a unique number at the time of recovery, their location recorded and their unique number would be their identifier throughout recovery, postmortem and identification, there was “little formal documentation of the recovery of the bodies” from within the Stardust.

“The failure to adequately document the recovery process means that it is not possible to perform any meaningful analysis of the likely effects of either the fire itself or the fire fumes on individuals or groups of individuals,” he said, adding that this had been noted in 1981 by the then State Pathologist, the late Dr John Harbison.

It was clear, he added, that the Dublin mortuary in Store Street, where 39 bodies were brought between 3.30am and .4.30am, had been “overwhelmed”. Other victims were pronounced dead on arrival at hospital or in the days and weeks after.

“The presence of victims placed on the floor beneath some of the mortuary tables in some photographs indicates that body storage was, at least for some time, completely inadequate,” said Dr Shepherd.

He said the “quality of the pathological examinations of the victims was very variable”.

“The one forensically trained pathologist, Dr Harbison, performed full and relevant examinations and produced detailed reports containing much useful information on each case he examined,” he added.

“The examinations and reports from the other pathologists were extremely variable and few recorded anything more than the very basic facts and offered little or no interpretation.

“Despite Dr Harbison’s knowledge, together with his established knowledge and skills, he does not seem to have had control over how the examinations were performed or how the reports were prepared and each pathologist appears to have worked as a separate entity rather than as a member of a team.

“The variability of approach and the quality of the reports, especially when combined with the absence of information from the scene, has resulted in an inability to analyse many of the forensic aspects of these deaths,” said Dr Shepherd.

The inquests continue.

• Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
• Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
• Our In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here