‘IRA victim’s’ body identified

DNA tests yesterday confirmed that the body pulled from a canal in the North was suspected IRA murder victim Gareth O’Connor.

His badly decomposed remains were found in a car on Saturday - two years after he vanished.

The father of two is believed to have been abducted after leaving his home in Armagh City in May 2003.

The 24-year-old bodybuilder, who was facing charges of membership of the dissident republican Real IRA, was on his way to Dundalk police station as part of bail conditions.

Claims that he was a police informer have been denied by his family, who insist the Provisional IRA murdered him.

Because the body had decomposed when it was taken from Newry Canal in Co Down, post-mortem tests failed to establish the identity or cause of death.

But a PSNI spokesman said: “DNA tests have confirmed that the remains discovered were those of missing 24-year-old Armagh man Gareth O’Connor.

“Detectives from Crime Operations Department are continuing to actively investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Gareth O’Connor.

“It remains a major line of inquiry that he was murdered.”

Detectives also believe the car had been in the canal since Mr O’Connor vanished. The IRA has denied killing him, leaving some to suspect that dissidents may have been involved.

Mr O’Connor’s family and fiancée Leona visited the stretch of water where the blue Volkswagen Golf was found to leave floral tributes. As they waited for confirmation, his father Mark who is adamant the IRA carried out the killing, spoke of their agony.

“All we can do is wait, and that’s all we’ve been doing for the last two years and one month,” he said. “It’s been horrible and the pain is no less now than it has ever been.”