Council denies heat was turned off in flat
Rachel Peavoy, 30, of 224 Shangan Road, Ballymun, Dublin, was found dead in her flat on January 11 last year. Pathologist Anthony Dorman, a consultant histapathologist at Beaumont hospital, found she had suffered hypothermia.
Speaking at the inquest, council engineer Brendan Furlong denied the heating in Ms Peavoy’s flat had been turned off and claimed it was working at the time of her death.
Mr Furlong said a weather compensation system was in place at the Shangan Road flats and the heating was only disabled when outside temperatures reached about 20 degrees Celsius.
Mr Furlong said a fitter had visited the flat on December 15 and noted a temperature of 17 degrees. The fitter attributed the low temperature in the flat on this visit to vacant flats next to and below Ms Peavoy’s flat, counsel for the family Ciaran Craven said.
The inquest also heard how representations were made by a school liaison officer and a GP at Dr Aidan Morris’s practice regarding the cold in Ms Peavoy’s flat.
Garda Catríona Byrne told yesterday’s inquest the flat was “freezing cold”.
“We’d come in from outside where it was very cold as it was snowing outside. The flat was freezing cold.”
Dr Dorman told yesterday’s inquest he had found nothing abnormal in Ms Peavoy’s anatomy during the postmortem examination.
Ms Peavoy had last spoken to her mother, Celine, the day before she was found dead.
She had asked her mother to mind her two sons, Leon and Warren.
The next day after numerous unsuccessful attempts to contact Ms Peavoy, her brother Leon Peavoy and friend Jacqueline Johnston let themselves into her flat. and found her body in the main bedroom.
Area housing manager Donal Barron said he was told by Inspector Andrew Waters the windows were open in the flat at the time of Ms Peavoy’s death.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell later adjourned the case until April 6 after Mr Craven said this was new evidence.
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