Health inspectors missed body hidden in freezer for five years

HEALTH inspectors and Department of Marine officials carried out up to 20 routine inspections of a walk-in fish shop freezer but failed to notice a man’s body which was hidden there for five years.

The body of 52-year-old Patrick McCormack was hidden in a bin in the walk-in freezer at the back of a fish shop in Galway after he was violently killed by a criminal associate.

The body was found in June 2007 when the shop owner went to tidy the large freezer ahead of an inspection by the Department of Marine.

A 45-year-old Galway man, Edward Griffin from Cimín Mór, Cappagh Road, Knocknacarra, in the city, is serving eight years for the manslaughter of Mr McCormack.

Griffin, who worked in the fish shop for several years, left a few months before the body was discovered.

The Central Criminal Court heard earlier this year that Griffin and McCormack were in the drugs business but had a row which led to Griffin killing Mr McCormack with a wheel brace.

The court was told that Mr McCormack was formerly known as Patrick Wynne but had changed his name by deed poll in 1995.

And in a new twist, a coroner’s court in Galway was told yesterday, by a brother of the deceased, that he also used the name Richard McCormack.

Christy McCormack asked West Galway Coroner, Dr Ciarán McLoughlin, to include the alias “Richard McCormack” on the death certificate.

Mr McCormack explained that his deceased brother along with his mother had taken out a loan for £56,000 some years ago and that a bank was insisting that another brother repay it.

Christy McCormack insisted that his brother had used the alias but Dr McLoughlin said that he could only include the two names for which there was proof on the certificate. He suggested that Christy McCormack go to the solicitor who had arranged the deed poll for the deceased man and take it from there.

Ali Jalilvand, owner of the Mermaid Fishmongers at Henry St in Galway, told the inquest how he had discovered Mr McCormack’s body when he went to carry out a routine inspection of the walk-in freezer prior to the arrival of officials from the Department of Marine.

Mr Jalilvand, said he became sick on June 13, 2007, when he discovered the body in a bin underneath boxes of frozen fish.

He estimated that health and marine officials had carried out between 15-20 inspections of the freezer during the time the body was there.

Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, said that it had taken several days for the body to thaw before he could carry out a postmortem.

Mr McCormack’s hands had been tied. A postmortem examination showed 40 injuries, 17 of which were to the head, with three of the head injuries being fractures. Cause of death was given as blunt force trauma to the head and face.