Gardaí investigating the murder of a 44-year-old father of four in Co Cork have begun examining mobile phones seized when they arrested three suspects for questioning about the killing.
A 20-year-old man and 17-year-old were arrested by gardaí at a Doneraile house at 8am on Monday morning. A 16-year-old was arrested at another location in north Cork at around 6pm on Monday evening.
Garda technological experts have begun examining the phones of the man and two teenagers. They hope the phones may shed light on the sequence of events which led to Barry Daly’s death in Doneraile in north Cork at the weekend.
Gardaí also seized clothing belonging to the three suspects. They are being examined by Garda technical experts in the hope it may provide DNA evidence that can assist them in establishing whether the suspects were in contact with Mr Daly.
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All three are being held at Garda stations in north and east Cork under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.
This allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to 24 hours before they must be charged or released. However, all three exercised their right to suspend questioning last night at midnight and rest for eight hours.
Gardaí resumed questioning all three at 8am on this morning and they have until Tuesday afternoon before they must charge or release the first two suspects. They have until early on Wednesday before they must charge or release the third suspect.
Mr Daly, who worked as a postman in Mallow, is survived by his partner, Katie O’Reilly and their four children, who range in age from 17 to two years old. Gardaí have appointed a Family Liaison Officer to support the family and keep them informed of developments in the inquiry.
Detectives upgraded their investigation from one into an assault to a full murder inquiry following the receipt of the postmortem results on Mr Daly by assistant State pathologist, Dr Margot Bolster, at Cork University Hospital on Monday afternoon.
Gardaí were not releasing the results of Dr Bolster’s post-mortem for operational reasons but it is understood they confirm Mr Daly died a violent death consistent with being attacked and struck repeatedly around the head with an implement.
They believe he was attacked by males armed with a golf club after they followed him and his teenage son some 750m (820 yards) from the centre of Doneraile to their home at Rockview Terrace on the outskirts of the village between 1am and 2am on Sunday morning.
It is understood Mr Daly and his son had been socialising in Eily’s bar in the centre of the village earlier in the night after Doneraile had beaten Ballyclough in the North Cork Junior B hurling final on Saturday afternoon.
Gardaí believe there was a row outside the bar as the Dalys were leaving around 1am on Sunday. The other party allegedly went away and armed themselves with a golf club and caught up with the Dalys at their home where the fatal assault took place.
The emergency services were alerted following the assault on Mr Daly as the assailants allegedly fled on foot. A team of paramedics quickly arrived but were unable to resuscitate Mr Daly and he was pronounced dead at the scene at around 2am.
Gardaí immediately cordoned off the area and Mr Daly’s body remained at the scene overnight covered with a protective tent.
Senior officers declared the area outside Mr Daly’s house a crime scene. They also designated a corner of Doneraile Demesne near the top of the village a crime scene and officers from the Garda Technical Bureau recovered a golf club from that part of the demesne.
Gardaí believe the golf club was used by one of the assailants to assault Mr Daly and investigators are hoping that forensic tests on it will enable them to identify if any of thesuspects used it in the assault.
Officers have begun examining CCTV footage from Doneraile village as they try to piece together the movements of both Mr Daly, his son and the three suspects.
Gardaí have also carried out door-to-door inquiries from the centre of Doneraile village along the main street and out to Rockview Terrace in the hope that witnesses may have heard or seen something that could assist them in their investigation.
They have appealed for witnesses to contact them, and are seeking any available camera footage, including dashcam recordings, from anyone in the Doneraile area between 12 midnight an 2am. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Mallow Garda station on 022 31 450.
