Gardai are seeking to interview a man, said to have left the jurisdiction, who is believed to have been in the company of Kim O'Donovan for several days after her escape from health board care, the High Court heard yesterday.
Det Insp Nicholas McGrath, of Store Street Garda station, said he believed the man, identified only as Mr B, could assist gardai as to 15-year-old Kim's movements after her escape on July 28th last. He believed Kim was last with the man on August 15th, nine days before she was found dead, and that she sustained an injury to her lip following a row with him.
There were matters regarding Mr B which he intended to pursue. Mr B was not a journalist.
Det Insp McGrath was the last witness to give evidence yesterday in the inquiry into the circumstances under which Kim escaped while in the care of the East Coast Area Health Board at Newtown House, Co Wicklow, and what steps gardai took to find her before she was found dead at a bed and breakfast premises on Talbot Street, Dublin, on August 24th, 2000.
At the conclusion of the evidence, legal submissions were made on behalf of Kim's parents, the State and the gardai. The board will make its submissions today.
Det Insp McGrath said he did an investigation for the coroner's inquest into Kim's death. The inquest jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure due to a heroin overdose and added a rider that information relating to missing persons should be improved.
The primary source of information for his investigation was a man - Mr A - who was with Kim at the Pillar guesthouse where she was found on August 24th. That man indicated he first met Kim on August 20th and had not previously known her. Kim stayed in the Pillar premises with Mr A on the night of August 21st-22nd and the night of August 23rd-24th.
His accommodation at the Pillar was paid for by a health board because a barring order existed against him and he was required to stay - alone - at the premises two nights a week.
Det Insp McGrath said the man indicated he and Kim, between August 20th and 24th, were in Dun Laoghaire, Sallynoggin, Loughlinstown, Fitzwilliam Square and at the Pillar. Gardai had some account of her movements and believed Mr B could "fill in the gaps".
Det Insp McGrath said Kim was sheltered by a family, whose son had been in Newtown House, in the Ballybrack/Loughlinstown area, for 10 days. On some nights the parents might not have been aware she was there.
The father had said Kim had told them she had left Newtown House and was working as a nurse's aide. The family met her in a hotel in Dun Laoghaire on July 28th (the day she escaped) and she stayed with them on July 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st and August 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th and 15th.
On August 17th, Kim stayed with a friend of Mr B and on August 19th, she stayed with a girl friend. On August 20th, she stayed with Mr B's family and on August 22nd, she stayed with the family of Mr A.
At the outset of legal submissions, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for the ECAHB, repeated his view that Mr Justice Kelly could not make findings of blame and could make recommendations only. The judge said the parties were entitled to a reasoned judgment as to how he arrived at any conclusions.
Mr Cormac Corrigan SC, for Kim's parents, said his clients did not want an anodyne inquiry and it would be absurd to make recommendations without grounding them on fact. No amount of gloss, reconstruction or revisionism regarding what would have been done could alter the relevant facts.
Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, for the State, said the court could not be unaware of features of public inquiries in respect of which instant judgments were made. There was a simplification of the issues and an increasing appetite for blame and moral outrage. There was also a tendency to blame conveniently disembodied institutions such as society and the State. In this case, no criticism could be levied at the State parties.
The court should avoid recommendations that increased the bureaucracy of care.
Mr Shane Murphy SC, for the Garda, said the evidence showed the importance of passing on information to gardai searching for missing children. Gardai were not aware until after Kim's death of her assertion in a letter read to the High Court on July 31st, and publicised on August 1st in newspapers, that she was staying in a B & B. He submitted the efforts made by the gardai to locate Kim, while unsuccessful, were reasonable in the circumstances.