Health inspectors missed body hidden in freezer for five years

HEALTH inspectors and Department of Marine officials carried out up to 20 routine inspections of a walk-in fish shop freezer but failed to notice a man’s body which was hidden there for five years.

The body of 52-year-old Patrick McCormack was hidden in a bin in the walk-in freezer at the back of a fish shop in Galway after he was violently killed by a criminal associate.

The body was found in June 2007 when the shop owner went to tidy the large freezer ahead of an inspection by the Department of Marine.