Victim, who was known to city drugs squad, was shot once at close range

A TEAM of 40 detectives aided by other Garda specialist units are trying to solve the killing of a 41-year-old Cork man.

The normally quiet Westlawn estate in Wilton was a hive of activity yesterday as teams of detectives carried out house-to-house inquiries and forensic experts examined the area for clues which might lead to the arrest of the gunman who blasted Gerard “Topper” Staunton with a shotgun at close range.

A girl’s bicycle and rubbish bin lay outside Mr Staunton’s rented home at No 23 yesterday. A large area around the two-storey, house was cordoned off with Garda tape.

The tape extended several yards towards a cul-de-sac, where it is believed the gunman parked his red Toyota Litace van before the killing.

One middle-aged woman, who didn’t wish to be named, said that the family were quiet. “They kept to themselves. This is really shocking,” she said.

Many of those who live in the estate, which is off the Sarsfield Road, work in nearby Cork University Hospital. A number of them are non-nationals.

Originally from Kilkieran Close in Hollyhill, Mr Staunton had been living in the rented house at Westlawn with his partner for nearly a year.

During that time he hadn’t come to the attention of local gardaí, but was well known to members of the city’s drugs squad.

A postmortem was carried out on his body yesterday at Cork University Hospital, while gardaí carried out forensic examinations on the burnt-out van found inWaterfall and other cars which were removed from the Westlawn estate.

At a press conference at Togher Garda Station,Superintendent Charlie Barry said there was nothing to indicate that Mr Staunton’s killing would result in any further violence.

He appealed for people to help gardaí catch the killer.

“We believe that someone out there knows something about this callous murder, bearing in mind it was committed in front of Gerard Staunton’s partner and young children. We will treat any information we get in the strictest confidence,” he said.

Mr Staunton’s partner and her children are being cared for by relatives.

Cllr David Boyle, who lives in a neighbouring estate, described the shooting as “a sinister development”.

“The area is very settled and the a loss of life in such a manner will come as a deep shock to the community. You hear about incidents of this nature in places like Limerick and Dublin. I hope that it is not the start of a trend,” Mr Boyle said.

He said counselling services should be made available to the family.

Gardaí say as yet they haven’t established a motive and won’t speculate if the killing is drugs related.

However, Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan claimed the killing had brought to five the number of gang and drug-related murders in the first three weeks of 2010. He said it was proof that Justice Minister Dermot Ahern is losing the battle on crime: “The minister needs to urgently address the crisis in crime that has gripped the country since the beginning of the new year. He must ensure that criminals cannot murder their adversaries with impunity.

Mr Flanagan said the minister must implement the tough legislation that Fine Gael supported last year which was specifically designed to take suspected gang members off the streets before they killed people.

“There have been no prosecutions for the offence of gang membership in the six months since the legislation was passed in the Dáil. That simply is not good enough,” he said.

Senator Jerry Buttimer said, among other measures, FG was proposing a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years for murder.