Canal body 'suspected IRA murder victim'

New tests will be carried out today on a body pulled from a canal in a bid to confirm it is a suspected IRA murder victim.

Police have revealed the car it was found in belonged to Gareth O’Connor, who has been missing for more than two years.

The father of two is believed to have been abducted after leaving his home in Armagh City in May 2003.

The 24-year-old bodybuilder, who was facing charges of membership of the dissident republican Real IRA, was on his way to Dundalk garda station as part of bail conditions.

Claims that he was a police informer have been denied by his family, who insist the Provisional IRA murdered him.

Police said they were working on the assumption that the body found in Newry Canal on Saturday belonged to Mr O’Connor, a belief shared by his father, Mark.

He said: “They have his car and a body but they cannot say for definite that it was Gareth because the post-mortem was inconclusive.”

The victim’s father, who expressed surprise at the location of the find, stressed that mainstream republicans were behind the killing.

“I’m sure it was the Provos,” he said.

The IRA has denied killing him, leaving some to suspect that dissidents may have been involved.

Dental records and DNA will now be used by police in a potentially lengthy process to prove beyond doubt who the remains belong to.

Because the body had decomposed, post-mortem tests carried out yesterday failed to establish the identity or cause of death.

But it is understood no bullet or knife wounds were found during examinations.

Detectives also believe the car had been in the canal since Mr O’Connor vanished.

Suspicions that the Provisionals carried out the murder strengthened today when a senior Catholic clergyman revealed warnings given to the victim’s relatives.

Monsignor Denis Faul told BBC Radio Ulster: “Four days before Gareth O’Connor disappeared, the police gave the family a document. It was from some of the paramilitaries, it was the IRA, threatening his life.

“I suppose that was the foundation of their belief.”