Villa death suspect is heroin dealer’s son

Cormac O’Keeffe and Owen Conlon

Paul Hickey, 28, from north Dublin, is due in court today in connection with the death of his partner in their holiday villa near Alicante.

Hickey, using his mother’s name, had to be restrained and sedated after he violently resisted police arrest at the couple’s holiday home in the town of San Fulgencio, south of Alicante on the popular Costa Blanca coast.

His 26-year-old partner had been found beaten to death on a floor in the house. The couple’s daughter, aged five, and two sons, aged one and eight, were in the home at the time.

Hickey is expected to appear in court today to hear what, if any, charges are brought against him.

Separate garda sources yesterday confirmed that Hickey’s father, Paul ‘Gash’ Ainscough, was one of the biggest heroin dealers in Dublin throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Anti-drug marches targeted his home in Darndale, north Dublin, around 1997 and the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) took at least E87,000 from him in 2001.

Some garda sources yesterday said he was recently trying to start up a major cocaine importation business from Alicante, but other gardaí said he was no longer involved.

Ainscough, aged in his late 50s, has had a stall for a number of years on Dublin’s Moore Street selling sweets and chocolates.

“He is a long-time career criminal and is of the same vintage as Tony Felloni,” said one garda source, referring to the notorious Dublin heroin dealer.

“He was trying to start back up in the cocaine business with his Spanish connections.”

Another garda source confirmed Ainscough had at least two drug convictions, both in the 1980s, and was once “a major player” in the heroin trade. But he said he was no longer involved.

“There’s no evidence he’s trying to restart importation. He’s working on a stall selling sweets and chocolates,” he said.

He said Hickey had a conviction for a relatively minor offence here, but that there was no evidence he was involved in the drugs trade.

Gardaí yesterday said Ainscough, originally from Buckingham Street in Dublin’s north inner city, was caught in 2001 with 87,000, which they suspected was being used to buy heroin.