Murder victim's family is angry at decision on hotel

THE Jury's Doyle hotel in Limerick, where Gráinne Dillon was murdered 21 months ago, will not be prosecuted, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) revealed yesterday.

Ms Dillon's distraught Cork family was informed of the HSA decision shortly before the agency issued a statement ruling out any action against the hotel group.

Following pressure from the family, the HSA conducted an investigation into claims that the hotel group had not provided a safe place of work for Patricia Dillon, the murdered trainee hotel manager's mother, said the family was bitterly disappointed.

"We have lost faith and confidence in some of the statutory agencies at this stage," she said.

She and her husband, Mike, were not given details of the HSA decision not to prosecute.

"There was no discussion," she said, after the Glounthane family had met HSA chief executive Tom Beegan at a Cork hotel. "We thought the HSA would have provided us with a report."

The HAS said the family had been advised last week to seek a copy of the report under the Freedom of Information Act. Legally, the HSA was not permitted to discuss the investigation.

The family has also campaigned to halt the repatriation of her Portuguese killer, Paula Alexander Nascimento.

Ms Dillon and her murderer, who had only been working at the hotel for six days, were the only two on duty on January 5 last year when she was shot at close range with a shotgun.

"The reason we sought an investigation by the HSA was that two inexperienced people were left on duty that night.

"Gráinne bled to death and we believe there was time to get her help if others had been on duty.

"We want to make sure that no other trainees are abused or subjected to a similar risk," she said.

The HSA said : "It is a source of regret to the authority that the Dillon family still has reservations about the nature of our involvement in the case."

The HSA said its inspector found no evidence to warrant a prosecution. The HSA said the authority did not intervene at an early stage as any involvement in the case during the murder investigation risked prejudicing the outcome of the trial.

The statement added: "After the conviction for murder was secured, the authority conducted its own investigation based on information supplied to it by the Dillon family, alleging that Jury's Doyle Group had not provided a safe place of work for Gráinne. This investigation was concluded on Friday last. No further action will ensue."