Gardaí to travel to Australia in canal body investigation

Gardaí have been in contact with associates of murder victim Kenneth O’Brien in Australia and are expected to travel there in the coming weeks.

Detectives are examining the victim’s activities in Perth, where he lived and worked, and are investigating whether or not he had been laundering money there for a criminal gang.

They are also investigating the possibility that he may have invested some of the money he earned from his construction business in a financial deal involving criminals here.

“Detectives have been in contact with associates of his there to see what he was up to,” said a garda source. “It’s expected they’ll go out and talk to people.”

Senior gardaí are investigating why Mr O’Brien, if he owed a criminal gang a significant amount of money, or was owed by them, thought it was safe to come back last month. They suspect he was lured home.

“He must have been sure he wasn’t going to be killed,” said the source.

Gardaí believe he also was lured from his house in Lealand Road in Clondalkin, West Dublin, on the morning of Friday, January 15, and thought it was safe to meet a particular person.

Senior officers have asked people who returned to premises or property and who thought equipment or a room had been disturbed to contact them.

Gardaí also want to find the vehicle that transported Mr O’Brien to his death and the vehicle or vehicles subsequently used to disperse his dismembered remains and cutting tools overnight that Friday/into Saturday.

His torso was located in the Grand Canal at Ardclough, Co Kildare, on Saturday, January 16, while other remains, including his severed head, were discovered 27km down the canal at Sallins, Co Kildare, last Sunday and Monday.

Part of a power tool was found north of Sallins, along the Royal Canal, at Maynooth that Monday.