Plea issued to taxi driver in relation to father-of-one's murder

Gardaí investigating the murder of a father-of-one in Dublin’s north inner city on St Stephen’s night today appealed for a taxi driver who had been working in the area to come forward.

Stephen Ledden was shot once in the back of the head as he lay sleeping on a sofa in the front room of the family home on Upper Oriel Street.

It had been suggested the killing was a case of mistaken identity.

Detectives said they want to talk to a cab driver who picked up two men on St Stephen’s Day on the North Strand at around 2pm.

Gardaí said the taxi drove along Ossary Road to an address on East Wall Road where a third man was picked up after a short wait.

The taxi then went back along Ossary Road and stopped at the junction of Ossary Road and North Strand where the first two men got out before the driver headed into the city centre with the third man.

The taxi is described as being an old type green coloured taxi.

Mr Ledden was the 27th gun murder in the country last year. Detectives believe his murder was retaliation for the killing of criminal Gerard ‘Bath’ Byrne outside a shop in the Irish Financial Services District a fortnight ago.

Byrne was shot once and fell to the ground before his killer fired several more rounds at his head from point blank range.

It is understood the killings are part of a long-running and increasingly violent feud between two families in the area.

But it has also been suggested that Mr Ledden was not the intended target. Gardaí are investigating a theory that someone else in the house was the intended victim, and that Ledden was not involved in the feud.