Gardaí investigating social networking of Ormond Square murder victim

Gardaí investigating the fatal stabbing of businessman John Maguire at his home in Ormond Square in Dublin on Monday are investigating the victim’s email and social networking activity to try and establish who he was in contact with before his murder.

Emergency services were called to the scene off the quays near the Four Courts in Dublin 7 shortly after 2.30pm. The 51-year-old victim – who is understood to have received several stab wounds – was found just inside the front door of his home by a neighbour. Emergency service personnel attended him but he died at the scene.

Mr Maguire was spotted by neighbours attending to his car at about 11am, a senior Garda source said last night, so the focus of the investigation is on establishing the identities of people who may have called to his house between the hours of 11am and 2.30pm.

It is understood there may have been a number of callers to the house as Mr Maguire was "a social being" who was popular in the community. "He was popular with various friends so it wouldn't be uncommon for people to be calling to his house," said the source. "But we're trying to establish who exactly was calling and create some sort of timeline of the amount of people calling."

No forced entry

There was no sign of forced entry at the house so one line of inquiry is that Mr Maguire knew his killer. “But exactly the nature of that relationship we don’t know at the moment,” said the source.

“We’re utilising any connections he had in his phone, any other media platforms he would have used: had he made arrangements to meet anybody? Was he communicating with anybody? Social networking sites, mobile phone, emails – all that type of stuff to see if they throw up much information.”

Gardaí have appealed for information and it’s understood a man working near the house reported hearing the sound of breaking glass.

The postmortem on Mr Maguire’s body has taken place but the results are not being disclosed by gardaí for operational reasons.

It’s understood gardaí located knives inside the house but have yet to establish whether any of these were used by the killer. An extensive technical examination has already taken place at the house.