Murder victim’s family succeed in call for hotel probe

A STATEMENT from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) read out on a radio show was the first time the family of a murder victim became aware that an investigation they have been campaigning for was under way.

The Dillon family have spent the last 18 months calling for the HSA to investigate the work practices in the hotel where 24-year-old Gráinne was shot by a workmate who left her to bleed to death while he robbed €3,000 from the cash registers and safe.

Gráinne and Paulo Alexander Nascimento were the only two staff on duty in Jurys Inn Limerick on January 5, 2002, catering for almost 300 guests. Mr Nascimento, a Portuguese national, had only been working for the group for six days before he shot Gráinne at close range with a single-barrelled shotgun in the breast, thigh and pelvic region as part of his attempt to steal enough money to buy a ticket home.

The family have written to the HSA more than a dozen times asking it to investigate the work practices in the hotel which they believe contributed to Gráinne’s death.

But the family only become aware that the investigation they have been seeking was underway after Gráinne’s father, Micheal, told the Marian Finucane show on Tuesday morning about their plans to hold a silent protest outside a HSA public meeting in Cork in a bid to force the State agency to investigate her death.

The HSA contacted the radio show to say that an investigation was underway and was expected to be concluded within three weeks.

“The first we heard of the investigation or that it would be concluded in three weeks was on the Marian Finucane show. It shows that the only way to get answers is through the media,” Gráinne’s sister Aoife said yesterday.

The family decided to go ahead with the protest with more than 50 people in the hope of meeting with representatives of the HSA to outline their concerns about the investigators’ failure to contact them.

The family want the HSA to look at the level of security the hotel had in place to safeguard the cash, the level of personal security and the training of personnel.