Man questioned in killer’s fatal beating
Charlie Molloy, 36, had recently been released from Limerick Prison after serving a five-year sentence for violent assault causing death.
Molloy was one of Southill’s most feared and notorious criminals.
His badly battered body was discovered on open ground near Carew Park, Southill at about 10.30pm on Saturday night.
Initial indications are he was beaten with a heavy blunt instrument.
Gardaí at Roxboro Road station are awaiting results of a postmortem carried out yesterday afternoon by state pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.
Molloy was last seen alive earlier on Saturday night near the Galvone Arms pub, which is just a short distance from where the body was found.
The murder may have been a revenge attack as Molloy had many enemies.
He had recently been released after serving a five-year sentence for a vicious assault which resulted in the death of a retired butcher, Peter O’Sullivan, who was found with serious injuries on a street in Carew Park in December 2000.
Mr O’Sullivan, 60, who had run a very successful butcher business in Limerick and Tipperary, died the following March of his head injures, never regaining consciousness.
Molloy was subsequently charged with his murder.
However, when the case came to court the State accepted a plea of guilty to violent assault.
It transpired that Molloy met Mr O’Sullivan in a pub and lured him back to his house in Carew Park where he bludgeoned him.
He then dragged the seriously injured man from the house and dumped him on the side of the street where he was found the following morning by a passer-by.
Previous to that Molloy killed a young school girl, Natalie Moore, in Southill in 1988, when a car he stole mowed her down as she walked to a local shop with friends.
The child’s death sparked outrage and parents staged a protest march.
Molloy was released from Limerick Prison recently where he had been serving a manslaughter sentence for the death of Mr O’Sullivan.
Superintendent Frank O’Brien who is heading the murder investigation said the dead man had received injuries to his head.
Supt O’Brien said: “The deceased lived with his mother at Maigue Way, Carew Park, not far from where his body was discovered. He was seen at around 10pm near the Galvone Arms. The emergency services were alerted by a number of calls and the deceased was pronounced dead at the scene. He has obvious serious head injuries which must have been caused during a vicious assault.”
Gardaí believe that some people may have witnessed the fatal attack as it happened on open ground where people regularly pass at that time of night.
