Town comes to terms with trauma
A TOWN in Co Cork is trying to come to grips with the trauma of the deaths of two men — one of whom is being mourned by a young daughter he was said to be absolutely devoted to.
The people of Bandon were coming to terms with the death of Jonathan Duke, 27, when they were sent reeling into further shock with the discovery of another body, this time of a British man who had lived in the town for about three years.
Last Monday night, gardaí had expressed concern for the welfare of John Forrester, 42.
Mr Duke was found dead outside the apartment block that Mr Forrester lived in and it emerged that the British man hadn’t been seen by anybody since last Saturday night.
The signs looked ominous yesterday morning as a team of up to 60 gardaí carried out a search along the River Bandon between the town centre and the nearby village of Innishannon.
A coastguard helicopter was brought in to help with the operation and it made two sweeps up and down the river before the Garda Underwater Unit and a team of Civil Defence volunteers launched two inflatable boats into the river.
At about 11.45am, they recovered Mr Forrester’s body from the river and brought it to the bank before sealing off the area opposite Atkins farm supplies shop, which is on the eastern approaches to the town.
Mr Forrester was pronounced dead at the scene by a local doctor and a little over an hour later, undertakers removed his body to Cork University Hospital, where a postmortem was carried out last night by assistant state pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster. Gardaí have received preliminary results and will hold a case conference today. Gardaí asked Anybody with information to contact Bandon station on 023 8852200.
On Monday, Dr Bolster had carried out a postmortem on Mr Duke.
Gardaí have not released details of the autopsy on the unmarried father, who was an unemployed labourer.
His body was discovered after a passer-by rang gardaí at about 11pm on Monday. His body was recovered from the river under Bandon bridge a short time later.
A number of floral tributes were placed in the railings of a gate outside the Bridge House apartment complex (also known as the O’Callaghan Flats) yesterday, as well as a holy candle.
The three-storey apartment block near the bridge remained sealed off yesterday as Garda forensic experts examined the scene.
They also sealed off about 9m of the walkway in the area.
Mr Duke cheated death in June 2009 when he fell the from same third-floor apartment. However, he didn’t live there.
He spent six months recovering from his injuries, but according to friends was never the same again.
“He was a sound guy. He’d always be there for you, especially when we were young fellas. I knew him since I was 12. He wasn’t the same after the fall. His speech wasn’t the same, it was slow,” said a male friend who didn’t wish to be named.
“He idolised his daughter. She was his life and he would see her every weekend,” the man added.
A woman standing on Bandon bridge proclaimed that Mr Duke “wouldn’t hurt a fly”.
She described his death as “shocking and tragic,” as did a group of other people close by who had come to the area to pay their respects.
Yesterday Mr Duke’s nine-year-old daughter, Angel, was being comforted by relatives, including Mr Duke’s mother, Michelle, at the family home in Deerpark estate, Bandon.
A woman who was standing outside the house, who described herself as a cousin of the dead man, said family were too upset to talk and asked the media to respect their privacy.
“It’s not really a great time to call as his daughter is inside,” she said.
Mr Duke’s mother, who has three daughters — Cindy, Nicole and Shannon — works part-time at the Ho Kee Chinese restaurant in the town’s North Main Street.
She was working in the restaurant on Monday night.
Michelle, however, was unaware that just metres away from the restaurant the body of her only son was being taken from the river.
Eilish Daly knew both Mr Duke, who she described “as the best guy ever”, and Mr Forrester.
She said that Mr Forrester, known affectionately in the town as “Johnnie English”, was “a very nice fella”.
“He was quite friendly with Jonathan Duke. He (Forrester) would have had a lot of friends in the town.”
Gardaí initially said that Mr Forrester hadn’t been seen since about 7pm last Saturday.
Some of the 50 gardaí working on the case are now trying to trace his movements after leaving the off-licence and house-to-house inquiries are also continuing in the area.
Gardaí were yesterday trying to contact Mr Forrester’s relatives in Britain.
The mayor of Bandon, Cllr Sean O’Donovan, said the 8,000-strong population of the town was in total shock at the two deaths.
“People treated the discovery of the second body (Mr Forrester) with total disbelief. People can’t believe this has happened in what is essentially a close, tight-knit community.”
Cllr O’Donovan described the Duke family as popular members of the community.
“Nothing like this has ever happened here in living memory.”
However, Cllr O’Donovan recalled the sadness in the town when news broke in January 2009 that widow Ann Corcoran, had been abducted from her home in the nearby village of Kilbrittain. After a massive search lasting a number of days her body was found partially hidden in woods in Ballinspittle.
A Bandon man was later convicted of her murder.
County councillor Alan Coleman said people in the town “were being very supportive of the Duke family” as they tried to come to terms with their grief.
“This is a huge tragedy and I’m sure people are also thinking about the family of the other man as well,” said Cllr Coleman.
Last evening members of the Garda underwater team conducted a search of the river bed adjacent to Bandon bridge and the apartment block Mr Forrester lived in.
More than 100 shocked people watched on as the divers painstakingly combed the river bed and occasionally retrieved items which they handed to gardaí on the river bank who put them into evidence bags.
Last night, about 50 friends of Mr Duke and Mr Forrester held a rally outside Bandon Garda Station. They later went to the nearby courthouse where they were mingled with a further 100 onlookers.
