GARDAÍ BELIEVE two men shot dead in a stolen car in Co Louth which was then set alight were drug addicts rather than major players in the drug trade.
When one of the men appeared in court 10 years ago it emerged he had once spent £20,000 on heroin in one month after receiving the money as compensation following an accident.
The men’s remains were so badly burnt that it may be well into next week before dental records and DNA samples will be able to positively confirm their identities.
However, gardaí believe the men are Anthony Burnett (32) and Joseph Redmond (25), both from the Ballybough area of Dublin’s north inner city.
A preliminary examination by Deputy State Pathologist Khalid Jabbar of the bodies at the Co Louth crime scene on Thursday established the men had been shot. The bodies were then removed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for full postmortems.
While those examinations were still ongoing last night, it is believed at least one of the men was shot in the head.
The men’s remains were found on the front seats of a stolen VW Golf that was set on fire at the Ravensdale Woods at about 10pm on Wednesday.
When firefighters from Dundalk brought the flames under control they realised there were badly burnt bodies slumped over each other in the front of the car and rang the Garda.
Gardaí believe the men were shot in the car and the vehicle then set on fire to frustrate the Garda investigation into the double murder by destroying any forensic evidence that would link the killers to the crime.
The motive for the killing – the second double murder in just 24 hours – was unclear last night. However, gardaí believe the men travelled to Ravensdale in the car, stolen last Monday in Sandymount, to meet people known to them.
Gardaí believe the meeting was probably drug-related, but when the men arrived the people they were meeting shot them before burning the car with the bodies inside.
Mr Burnett, who had lived in a number of different addresses in Ballybough in recent years, was the more serious criminal. He had scores of convictions, including for many chaotic crimes such as robberies and muggings associated with efforts to raise money on the spur of the moment to buy heroin.
During his many court appearances, different judges were told he had tried cannabis while still at primary school and had moved on to heroin by the time he was 13 years old and had spent a £20,000 compensation payment on heroin.
He had a number of convictions for assault and served three years in prison for an attack on a Slovakian man.
He also had convictions for minor drug-dealing offences and for assaulting a prison officer while he was trying to escape from a prison van in Dublin six years ago.
Mr Redmond had between 50 and 60 convictions but mostly for minor crimes. In one case he was charged with stealing kegs of beer from a pub.
