Slain pensioner was convicted stalker

A murdered pensioner found with his throat slit was a convicted stalker, it emerged today.

Gardaí have formally identified the 80-year-old man, whose half-naked bloodied body was found yesterday in a sheltered housing unit in Dublin’s south inner city, as Vincent Plunkett.

The retired traffic warden, from Athlone, Co Westmeath, was given a three-month suspended sentence and fined £300 eight years ago for terrorising a young married couple.

Brian and Michelle Mullen alleged the then 72-year-old put dog faeces through their door, sent 30 abusive letters to their home and wrongly accused Mr Mullen of being a homosexual, drug dealer and garda informer.

Three months after the court case the 24-year-old father of a four-year-old girl hung himself.

Paramedics who were called to Mr Plunkett’s ground floor apartment at Robinson’s Court, Cork Street, close to the Coombe area, said the elderly man had his throat cut.

A neighbour who lived upstairs and went into the flat after a visiting home helper ran out screaming before 12 noon said the dead man was lying slumped at the side of his bed naked except for a quilt which partially covered him.

A post mortem examination at the city morgue revealed the pensioner suffered a violent death with stab injuries to his head and throat.

After the results, gardaí immediately upgraded the case to a murder investigation. The crime scene remains sealed off and it has been confirmed there was no sign of a break-in at the apartment.

The absence of any evidence of a struggle suggests that the victim may have known or invited the killer into his home, where he lived for four years.

Detectives have established the pensioner owned a large van and had somebody working along with him, carrying out removals on a freelance basis. They are trying to track this man down.

Neighbours said the silver coloured van was usually parked outside the apartment and was missing when the body was found.

Gardaí are meeting with relatives of the dead pensioner today to try and establish any possible motives for the murder. Most of the man’s brothers and sisters are dead and he had no family of his own.

Some of the elderly residents in the two storey block of around 40 council-owned apartments, opposite the Chamber Street Flats, said they hadn’t seen nor heard from the dead man since Saturday.

Investigating officer Detective Superintendent PJ Browne said last night there was an unconfirmed sighting of the victim late on Sunday evening.

In March 1998, Mr Plunkett was found guilty of common assaults against the young Mullen family and a number of breaches of the peace, all committed in Athlone.

On one occasion during a four-month reign of terror, he followed the couple on a wedding anniversary break to the Aran Islands. It was alleged he spat at Mrs Mullen, called her a whore and threatened to shoot the family.

The three were believed to have been friendly at one stage but had a falling out over money. Mr Plunkett claimed the couple owed him around €5000.

Mr Mullen had helped Mr Plunkett deliver beer in his van throughout the Midlands for a while. The young man said he never sought payment for the work.