Disappearance akin to abduction of Madeleine McCann

THE garda who led the search for missing schoolboy Philip Cairns 23 years ago has described the case as one of the most mysterious he has ever worked.

Retired Det Inspr Gerry O’Carroll said Philip’s disappearance prompted a public outcry on a par with that which has surrounded the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Describing whoever abducted the 13-year-old schoolboy back in 1986 as “a fiend”, Mr O’Carroll said the circumstances of the disappearance were “incredible” and the investigation became a personal quest for many of the officers working on the case.

“From almost the beginning, and I know it is kind of hurtful to say this to the family, but I felt when 24 hours and 48 hours and a week had gone by, we would never see that child again,” he said.

Speaking about the investigation, he said: “Nothing was held back from us – we were given every resource on Earth and it was very personal for many of us and there was a sense of urgency because many of the detectives and guards working on the case had children going to that school and had children going to adjoining schools and the sheer outrage that it generated and the fact that he was abducted from one of the busiest thoroughfares in Dublin between half one and two o’clock on his way back to school in a built-up area with massive traffic at every second – it was almost incredible that he went without not a sighting, no reports.”

He said the case was difficult to pursue because of the lack of a crime scene, while anyone who had taken Philip was just 10 minutes drive away from “the wilderness” of the Dublin Mountains.

There have been 400 sightings of Philip over the years, he said, each one investigated, and he recalled there were suspects in the case but “it was very difficult to break alibis”.

The discovery of Philip’s schoolbag six days after his disappearance, on a previously searched laneway, seemed a vital clue, he said, but ultimately it was “an enigma, a mystery”.

Mr O’Carroll said gardaí were unsure if it may have been left there by whoever took Philip as a means of taunting them, or whether there was an innocent explanation.

He told RTÉ’s Liveline programme that Philip’s family had suffered “on-going torment and anguish”, as well as many false dawns.

“They have always kept the torch lighting for him, but they had to live for their other children as well,” he said, adding that the recovery of a body might provide DNA evidence that would help catch the “fiend who has kept this horrible secret to himself for all these years”.