Man jumps from cliff after partner is found dead

THE African partner of a Polish woman, who was found dead in violent circumstances in Tralee yesterday, last night jumped from a cliff in Ballybunion following a six-hour stand-off with Garda negotiators.

A murder investigation had been expected to be launched today following the discovery of the body of the woman in her 20s in a house on the edge of Tralee town. She is believed to have been strangled.

Gardaí went to the rented, terrace house after receiving an emergency call at 3pm, and broke through a front sitting room window to gain entry to the house.

The woman, named locally as Katarzyna Bartowiak, was found with extensive injuries in an upstairs room of the rented house in which she lived at Deerpark, beside the Manor West shopping centre, on the outskirts of the town.

Locals said she had been living there with her partner, from Benin in West Africa, and their two-and-a- half-year-old son.

At approximately 4pm, just hours after the discovery, a stand-off began on the clifftop in the north Kerry seaside resort of Ballybunion between gardaí and an African man believed to be the dead woman’s partner.

For the next six hours trained Garda negotiators tried to talk the man down from the cliff overlooking the beach.

Despite their efforts just after 10pm, he jumped 40 feet into the sea.

A search and rescue operation was launched but at the time of going to press, he had not been located.

The dead woman, whose body was still at the scene last night, worked at Dunnes Stores in Tralee.

Assistant state pathologist Dr Margot Bolster is due to carry out a postmortem examination at Kerry General Hospital, about a kilometre from the scene, today.

Last night, shocked neighbours gathered in clusters in the estate while gardaí were on duty at the house, which was cordoned off.

Members of the Garda Technical Bureau were on their way from Dublin to Tralee, last night.

The investigation is being led by Superintendent James O’Connor, Tralee.

* Gardaí are appealing to anyone who saw anything suspicious in the Deerpark Estate, in the 24 hours prior to finding the woman’s body, to contact Tralee Garda station on 066 7102300, or the Garda confidential line 1800 666111.