Former prisoner sought after Jamaican woman murdered

A former prisoner released just hours before a Jamaican woman was bludgeoned to death was today being hunted by gardai.

The man – who has not been named by gardai – left Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison just before the 24-year-old woman was found in a flat in north Dublin.

Gardai said the mother-of-two, who had been living and working in Ireland for some time, appeared to have received a number of blows from a blunt instrument.

It is believed her four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son may have been in the flat at the time.

The woman was named locally as Natasha Gray but will not be formally identified until all relatives are informed.

A murder hunt was launched after Ms Gray was found by relatives in the bedroom of a flat in Phibsboro yesterday afternoon.

Ambulance technicians treated the woman and took her to the city’s Mater Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

A post-mortem was carried out by the Deputy State Pathologist and the apartment was preserved for forensic examination.

It is believed Ms Gray had just returned to Ireland after a holiday in Jamaica. Her sister is understood to be living and working in Dublin.

Gardai appealed for anybody with information on the murder to come forward.