Man fatally stabbed in drunken row had taken cocaine

COCAINE was found in the system of a 34-year-old man stabbed to death in a drunken row at his home in Tralee, assistant state pathologist Dr Margot Bolster yesterday told a murder trial.

Toxicology tests on samples taken during a postmortem examination by her at Kerry General Hospital, Tralee, on January 1 last, showed Michael “Drip” Lonergan had taken roughly a line of cocaine.

The samples also showed the deceased, who received his injuries during a New Year’s Eve party, had a concentration of 163mg of alcohol in his blood.