Daughter found killer hanged in shed

FREDDIE FLANNERY, the man dubbed the House of Horrors Killer, was discovered hanged in a shed by his young daughter, an inquest was told yesterday.

The 44-year-old killed himself on May 16 last without ever having been convicted of the gruesome deaths of three men. Flannery’s trial for the murder of Patrick ‘Patch’ O’Driscoll controversially collapsed in the Central Criminal Court in June 1996.

A judge ruled late disclosure of documents by gardaí was detrimental to Flannery getting a fair hearing.

Parts of Mr O’Driscoll’s body were found buried in woodlands on the outskirts of Cork city. He had been cut up and burned.

Gardaí believed Flannery had also murdered two other men, Cathal O’Brien, 23, and Kevin Ball, 42, in a flat which they shared with Mr O’Driscoll at 9 Wellington Terrace in Cork city centre. Neither of their remains have been found.

Flannery’s partner, Kathleen Mannix, told the inquest that she had been living with him and their four children, aged 10 months to four years, at a farmhouse in Carrigaline.

After shaving on the morning of May 16 Mr Flannery went to an outhouse to work on his motorbike, she said. In a statement read to the coroner’s court Ms Mannix said Mr Flannery’s brother, John, rang looking for him and she sent their four-year-old daughter Emma out to get her father.

She described hearing the child scream. Ms Mannix ran to the outhouse where she saw Emma holding on to her father’s legs which were dangling in mid air.

Ms Mannix cut down her partner with a kitchen knife and tried to revive him. “I was trying to bring him back, there was no movement, nothing,” she said.

Gardaí who arrived at the scene discovered Mr Flannery had hanged himself with blue nylon rope, the upper part of which he had wrapped six times around a beam. It appeared he had stood on a pot, put the rope around his neck and jumped off.

Ms Mannix said her partner hadn’t suffered from depression and she could see no reason why he would take his own life. He left no suicide note.

Mr Flannery was pronounced dead at the scene by Dr Larry Martin and his body was taken to Cork University Hospital. Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said her post mortem had showed Flannery was a healthy man.

However, she said she did find what she described as small traces of cannabis in both his blood and urine.

Dr Bolster said the ligature mark on Flannery’s neck was consistent with the nylon rope, adding cause of death was asphyxia due to hanging or suspension by a ligature.

South County Cork coroner Dr Frank O’Connell said it had been established beyond any reasonable doubt that Flannery had taken his own life.

He ruled Dr Bolster’s statement on cause of death was correct adding it had been “self-caused”. The coroner offered his sympathy to Ms Mannix, her children, Mr Flannery’s mother and the rest of his family.