Four held over teen’s killing

FOUR men were being questioned by Gardaí last night over the murder of Dublin teenager Daniel McAnaspie.

The arrests are the first made by Gardaí as part of their investigation into the brutal killing of Daniel McAnaspie, a 17-year-old who was in the care of the HSE when he disappeared in the early hours of February 27 last.

It emerged yesterday that in the last nine months of his life, Daniel was moved more than 14 times between residential care homes, family services and out-of-hours services.

A HSE report into his case found he was in danger of becoming immersed in “a dark world of drug abuse and criminality” following “a horrific upbringing fuelled with parental death, drug and alcohol abuse and significant neglect”.

On Saturday, the Irish Examiner revealed that applications to place Daniel in secure care were turned down twice last year, despite fears expressed by his family that it was the only safe place for him.

The denial of a secure care place came in the midst of various placements, which included a facility in Cavan, Lefroy House in Dublin city centre, a residential unit in Dundalk and Echlin House in Dublin.

He also spent time with some of his maternal aunts, but placements broke down intermittently and it is understood one of his aunts who said he could stay with her was herself waiting to be re-housed.

Family members said the out-of-hours system was not appropriate for his care and expressed a concern that he would either end up getting hurt or would hurt someone else.

As late as September last year, the situation with Daniel’s care was said to have been very uncertain, while he was engaging with a drug support programme in Dublin and receiving six hours of educational support per week.

Daniel was last seen outside a house in the Whitestown estate in Blanchardstown, having been out with friends in Finglas the previous day.

Fears were expressed for his safety as soon as he went missing and an appeal for information was launched, before his body was discovered in a ditch at farmland in the Rathfeigh area of Co Meath on May 13.

He had been stabbed at least six times in the upper body and throat in what Gardaí described as “a desperate act”.

Three of the men are in their 20s and a fourth man in his 30s were arrested in the Blanchardstown area yesterday morning and taken for questioning to different Garda stations around north Dublin.

Two of the men, held in Cabra and Finglas Garda stations, are suspected of murder. The other two men, questioned in Finglas and Blanchardstown Garda stations, are suspected of withholding information.

Two of the men are being held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act on suspicion of murder, while the other two are being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. It is understood all four are from the Blanchardstown area.