Gardaí release woman in slurry pit murder probe

A WOMAN questioned about the murder of a man whose body was found dumped in a slurry tank was released without charge last night.

Detectives investigating the death of 37-year-old new age traveller, Garry Bull, from Hertfordshire in England, released the 44-year-old English woman from Bandon Garda Station in Co Cork just after 8pm last night.

A file will now be prepared for the director of public prosecutions. More arrests are expected in the coming days.

The woman became the seventh person to be arrested as part of the murder probe when she was arrested at Cork Airport just after midday on Tuesday after she had disembarked from a flight from Germany.

She was arrested on suspicion of murdering Mr Bull, whose body was found in a slurry tank on a remote farm at Shanlaragh, Dunmanway in west Cork, last Thursday.

Meanwhile, Mr Bull’s 4x4, which was recovered in Limerick on Tuesday evening, underwent a detailed technical examination yesterday.

The blue Isuzu Trooper, registration number 96 C 16566, was recovered in Ballyneety after a member of the public responded to a Garda appeal for information on its whereabouts.

It was last seen at Shanlaragh on September 23, the date when Mr Bull was also last seen alive.

It was transported under Garda escort to Santry Garda Station in Dublin where forensic experts from the Garda Technical Bureau combed it for forensic evidence throughout the day.

The same experts were involved in the recovery of Mr Bull’s body from the slurry pit last week.

Detectives said they are satisfied they have a reasonable idea of the 4x4’s movements since that time.

It is believed Mr Bull was killed with a blunt instrument, possibly a hammer or iron bar, about a fortnight before his body was found, and that he was dead when his body was dumped in the slurry tank.

He had been living in a mobile home in the Kilmichael area of west Cork between Dunmanway and Macroom.

He had come to live in a community of new age travellers in the nearby Coole Mountain area about three years ago.

Arrangements are expected to be made in the coming days for the return of the remains to England for burial.