Last month’s gruesome attacks are indicative of a trend in violent crime that cannot be divorced from the effect of cuts to policing and other services, says Security Correspondent Cormac O’Keeffe.

Gardaí are gathering DNA samples to determine if dismembered body parts found in a Dublin suburb on Monday night are those of a teenager under threat from drug bosses.

John Myles, who will be out of work for three weeks following the shooting on the Bridge of Peace, told his local radio station LMFM that he had nothing to do with crime or drugs.