Horor of double suicide pact revealed at inquest

Five men walked into a garda station, late at night, and shockingly revealed how, while carrying out a break-in at an isolated rural house in Co Limerick, they had discovered two rotting bodies.

The grim saga unfolded yesterday at an inquest in Newcastle West into the deaths of Thomas Ruttle, aged 56, and Julia Holmes, aged 63.

Their badly decomposed bodies were found side by side in a bed at Mr Ruttle’s home at Boolaglass Askeaton.