Homeless man died of crush injuries

GARDAÍ yesterday ruled out foul play in the death of a man whose body was found in a refuse recycling centre near Limerick city.

A postmortem revealed the man, in his 30s, died from massive crush injuries sustained in a compacting refuse collection lorry.

The lorry owned by the Mr Binman refuse collection company had collected from wheelie bins in Limerick city early on Monday.

Gardaí believe the man, who had taken shelter in a large four-wheel commercial bin, was tumbled into the back of the compacting truck during a collection round.

Superintendent Frank O’Brien said the victim might have gone into the wheelie bin for shelter.

Supt O’Brien said: “It is not unknown for people sleeping out to use these large bins as sanctuary and on Sunday night and Monday morning was extremely cold. The postmortem established that he received severe crush injuries.

“That appears to be the case and these crush injuries would be consistent with being caused in the waste compacting process in a collection lorry which use a huge degree of force when compacting refuse.”

Supt O’Brien said they are still trying to confirm the identity of the victim although they have a name.

They are also working to find the wheelie bin in which the man was taking shelter.

Two Mr Binman compacting trucks took refuse from bins in Limerick on Monday morning.

A large transport truck also brought rubbish from a depot in Clonmel to the main Mr Binman depot in Limerick where the body was discovered.

Supt O’Brien said they are satisfied the man was brought to the depot in one of the two compacting lorries which did collections in Limerick City.

The investigation is continuing.