Further arrests in north Cork violent death case

Five men have now been arrested in connection with the violent death of a 36-year-old man in north Cork last February.

Three men were arrested in early morning swoops at houses in the region yesterday.

Two men, aged 44 and 40, were arrested at addresses in Doneraile while the third, aged 22, was arrested at a house in nearby Ballyhea.

They were being questioned at Mallow and Cobh Garda Stations in relation to the death of Peter Murphy.

He was found beaten to death at his rented home at Shanavoher, Bweeng, at around 1pm on Saturday, February 7 last.

Mr Murphy, who was unemployed but made pocket money repairing lawnmowers and other machinery, had sustained a fractured skull, fractured ribs and damage to both his liver and spleen.

The injuries are consistent with him having been subjected to a prolonged beating.

Two men, aged 22 and 28, were arrested last Monday at addresses in Buttevant and taken to Mallow Garda Station for questioning.

One of them has since been released without charge and a file is to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The men were all arrested under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which gives gardaí the power to detain them for questioning for up to seven days.

These are the first arrests in relation to Mr Murphy’s death.

Mr Murphy, who was not known for going out socialising, was last seen alive outside his home on Thursday, February 5, at approximately 2.30pm. However, it is known he was in phone contact with his mother, Maria, an hour-and-a-half later.

His body was found by his landlord after he went to investigate a call from a neighbour who had told him that glass was broken on the front door of the house.

A postmortem suggested that Mr Murphy had been dead for at least 12 hours before his body was discovered.

Supt Pat McCarthy, who is leading the Garda investigation, said many hours of painstaking work had gone into the case.

He said it had been especially difficult as the death occurred in a very isolated area.

This resulted in gardaí trawling a far wider area for CCTV footage to track movements of vehicles in the hope of providing them with clues to who attacked Mr Murphy.

To date gardaí have viewed more than 1,200 hours of CCTV footage and they have also taken in excess of 200 witness statements.

Crimestoppers is offering a substantial reward for information which made lead to the conviction of his attackers.

Mr Murphy, who was a native of Castletownroche, previously lived at rented accommodation in Rockchapel and moved to the Bweeng area more than a year ago.

The dead man was not a regular pub-goer and mainly socialised at home.

While gardaí are not commenting on a motive for Mr Murphy’s killing, one theory that has developed locally is that he may have been given a beating over an outstanding debt.

More than 30 gardaí have been working on the case.