Chief Justice's son died after fall, inquest hears

The son of the former Chief Justice Ronan Keane died after failing to seek medical treatment for a broken arm sustained in a …

The son of the former Chief Justice Ronan Keane died after failing to seek medical treatment for a broken arm sustained in a heavy fall, an inquest heard today.

Timothy Keane (39) was discovered in his flat on Harold's Cross Road, Dublin, around two days after he collapsed and died from a fat embolism.

He had suffered a serious fracture to his upper left arm around 24 hours before his death and fatty tissue from the bone marrow had travelled to his lungs where it had restricted his intake of oxygen, state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy told Dublin's City Coroners Court today.

While she said other injuries on his face and right hand meant she couldn't rule out the possibility of a separate minor assault, Dr Cassidy said the major injury was consistent with a "heavy fall".

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There was nothing at all to suggest anything that would substantiate the view there may have been or could have been an assault
Sergeant Joseph Molloy

She said a trivial amount of alcohol had been found in his system and that he could have been drinking and sustained a fall but not realised the severity of his injury.

"My feeling would have been that he had been drinking, had fallen, and got home, gone to bed and woken up in the morning and realised he had been severely injured."

She speculated that he might have been getting up to seek medical treatment when he collapsed in his flat. Mr Keane was found by the agent for the landlady of his flat, neighbour Julie McCormac, who has since died.

In a statement read to the inquest, she described finding him in the flat on July 9th, 2004, lying face up between the kitchen and the bedroom, dressed in his boxer shorts. His body was formally identified by his father, Mr Justice Keane, who was in court with his wife and daughters to hear the coroner's verdict today.

Sergeant Joseph Molloy, who conducted the Garda inquiry into Mr Keane's death said there was "absolutely" no evidence of an assault.

"There was no sign of a disturbance, no property missing, no evidence of robbery, all his personal items were present in the flat," he said.

"There was nothing at all to suggest anything that would substantiate the view there may have been or could have been an assault."

Recording an open verdict in Mr Keane's death, coroner Brian Farrell said the most likely explanation was that the injury had been sustained in a fall but because of a lack of evidence he could not conclusively say what had happened.

"He died from a fat embolism due to a fracture of the humerus which is established on or about the 5th or 6th of July 2004.

"He died on or about the 7th of July and the most likely explanation for the injury was a fall.

"However in view of the lack of evidence of the circumstances I'm recording an open verdict," he said. The coroner passed on his sympathies to the family for what he said must have been "devastating" for them.