Gardaí look to establish dead man’s last moments

Gardaí are still trying to trace the last movements of a man whose body was found on Thursday night with bruising to the upper body after a day-long drinking session.

The death of Anthony Barrett, in his early 40s and living on Parliament St in Kilkenny City, is being treated as suspicious.

Originally from Castlecomer, Mr Barrett was found with fatal injuries at about 7pm on Thursday in a house at Fatima Place in Kilkenny.

Gardaí have not released the results of an autopsy carried out on Friday on Mr Barrett’s body “for operational reasons”, but it is understood that there was bruising to his upper torso. There were no head injuries or stab wounds.

Khalid Jabber conducted the autopsy at Waterford Regional Hospital and “wasn’t happy” that Mr Barrett could have died from natural causes, according to gardaí.

While Mr Barrett may have suffered a fall at the house, which was owned by another man with whom he had been on a drinking session, gardaí believe the death is suspicious.

“In those situations, you could fall and we just want to rule anything out that didn’t cause it, before we decide where we’re going,” a garda involved in the investigation said.

“There are a lot of potential causes for how someone could have been deceased like that.”

Detectives are trying to establish the movements of the men, who were drinking around Kilkenny from Wednesday and during Thursday before they returned to the house.

*Anyone with information has been asked to contact Kilkenny Garda Station on 056 777 5000 or the garda confidential line on 1800 666 111, or any other garda station.