GARDAÍ HAVE located CCTV footage of 32-year-old Declan Power whose body was found at a waste recycling facility near Listowel, Co Kerry, on Friday.
It has emerged that the father of one from Kill, Bunmahon, Co Waterford, had arrived in Listowel on a fishing trip with others but had ended up at the races.
A garda on duty who spoke to him in the early hours of Friday morning ascertained that Mr Power and another man had been ejected from a B&B where they were sharing a room with two others who had booked the accommodation.
Mr Power is seen on the CCTV footage getting into the wheelie bin, which contained dry recyclables, at around 3.30am, presumably to sleep.
The bin was collected an hour later by a crusher truck.
A postmortem carried out by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster on Saturday morning found that Mr Power died from injuries he sustained while in the truck. The week-long race meeting, now in its 151st year, drew huge crowds to the north Kerry town.
The bins would have been automatically lifted into the trucks where waste is partially crushed by the weight of other waste and the discovery of Mr Power’s body was only made at the South West Bins on Wheels waste sorting facility, at Kilmorna, around 4.8km from Listowel, at about 4pm on Friday.
The workers who made the discovery were said to be extremely upset.
Gardaí were immediately called to the recycling plant and a thorough examination was carried out.
Local people were also shocked by the incident.
Deputy mayor of Listowel, Anthony Curtin said: “This is a tragic accident.
“This young man came to Listowel to enjoy himself.
“We are shocked here in Listowel and we offer our sympathies to his relatives, and we are so sorry this happened.”