A roundup of today's other home news in brief
Australian police seek to identify body
Australian police are investigating whether a body found yesterday morning is that of Irishman Niall McDonough, who has been missing since June 12th.
Shortly after 8.30am, lifesavers from Brunswick Heads retrieved a body from the water. It has not been identified but police are liaising with his family, who arrived in Australia to join the search on June 17th. A postmortem will be completed today.
Mr McDonough (30) was last seen by his girlfriend as he left a backpackers hostel in the northern town of Byron Bay to go for a walk on a Friday evening. A member of the public found some of Mr McDonough’s belongings on a park bench near the Cape Byron lighthouse early on Saturday morning.
Woman remanded over B of I fraud
A Kildare mother of four who attempted to defraud Bank of Ireland of €2,200 has been remanded on bail pending sentence next year.
Susan Dowling (37), The Park, Wolstan Haven, Kildare town, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to attempting to defraud by falsely pretending that the money was owed to another person at Bank of Ireland headquarters on Baggot Street, on April 9th, 2002. Dowling is due to plead guilty to other similar charges on the date of her sentence hearing.
Judge Delahunt adjourned the sentencing to next January.
Criminal loses rape case appeal
The Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed a Dublin criminal’s appeal against his conviction for the rape of his partner’s teenage daughter.
The court said leading gangland figure Christopher Griffin had established no grounds to successfully appeal against his conviction.
Griffin (39), Ridgewood Green, Swords, Co Dublin, formerly of Canon Lillis Avenue in Dublin’s north inner city, had appealed against his 2007 conviction of one count of oral rape of the girl in 1998, one count of rape in 2001 and nine counts of indecent assault on dates from 1993 to 1998.
Anti-clotting medication a factor in elderly man's death
A widely used anti-clotting medication was a factor in the death of a man who suffered a sudden collapse in hospital, an inquest has heard.
Peter Spain (81) was transferred as an emergency from the Royal Hospital, Bloomfield Avenue, Donnybrook, Dublin, where he was a patient, to St Vincent’s hospital on December 20th, 2008, after the acute onset of a headache and vomiting.
Investigations revealed Mr Spain, who was on the popular anti-clotting medication warfarin, had a large subdural haemorrhage with swelling of the brain.
He died the following day.
A subdural haemorrhage, (a haemorrhage in the membranes around the brain) is always associated with some type of trauma or bang to the head, except when someone is on warfarin, an inquest into Mr Spain’s death at Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.
Mr Spain had no history of a fall prior to his sudden collapse and his warfarin medication, which was described as being in the therapeutic range, was a factor in his death.
Patients on warfarin have an increased risk of non- traumatic subdural haemorrhage, the court heard.
"It's a haemorrhage associated with warfarin therapy," coroner Dr Brian Farrell said. He said he would report the death to the Irish Medicines Board.
97% of workplaces comply with ban
Compliance with the workplace smoking ban reached an all-time high in 2008, according to the Office of Tobacco Control's (OTC) annual report, which was published yesterday.
Last year, 97 per cent of workplaces were compliant with the ban, the highest level of annual compliance since the introduction of the ban in 2004.
A total of 25,350 inspections were carried out in workplaces around the country by environmental health officers in 2008.
Twenty-four cases were brought under the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts resulting in 19 convictions. In addition, 23 cases were taken for failure to comply with the sales to minors legislation, resulting in 19 convictions.
Four arrested over fatal stabbing
Gardaí investigating the discovery of man's body in Finglas arrested four people early yesterday.
The body of Maurice Martin (21), Navan, Co Meath, was discovered at the junction of Cardiffsbridge Road and Tolka Valley Road, Finglas, on June 12th.
One man (24) and three women (20, 21 and 22) were arrested in Finglas at about 8am.
They are being held in Finglas, Cabra and Blanchardstown Garda stations under of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. Detectives believe Mr Martin was stabbed during a fight.