Cavan death suspicious gardai

A post-mortem examination will be carried out in Cavan today on a man who died in suspicious circumstances at his home on Sunday night. Mr Geoffrey Leigh (64) was found with head injuries in the doorway of a house at Cavan coulter, Mountnugent, at about 11.30 p.m.

Gardai said they regarded his death as suspicious, but would not confirm local speculation that he had died from a gunshot wound.

Mr Leigh, who is believed to have been from Bangor in Wales, had lived in the area for less than two months. He shared the farmhouse with an 18-year-old man, also from Wales, and told locals he intended converting the property into bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

Shortly before he died he had dined with his companion at the nearby Crover House Hotel. The two men left the hotel at about 11 p.m. to drive back to the house, less than a mile away.

The alarm was raised at about 11.30 p.m. when the young man flagged down a passing motorist outside the house. When an ambulance arrived, Mr Leigh was dead.

Local Garda sources indicated an immediate arrest was unlikely. Last night investigating gardai removed Mr Leigh's car for further forensic examination in Cavan.

It is understood that gardai know the location of the young man who flagged down the car, although they said yesterday he had yet to be interviewed.

Mr Leigh and his companion were not well known locally, but ate most evenings at Crover House on the shore of Lough Sheelin. A second young man had stayed at the farmhouse from time to time but had not been seen much recently.

On Sunday night, according to the hotel proprietor, Mr Patrick O'Reilly, "they ate in the dining room, had a couple of drinks and a bottle of wine and left at about 11 o'clock."

A member of the Crover House staff, Ms Rosie Reilly, said Mr Leigh was thought to be a widower and spoke of doing up the farmhouse and starting a B & B. Apart from that, he and his friends kept to themselves.