Man released without charge in relation to Michael Gaine murder 'free to leave the country'

Gardaí have released the man arrested in connection with Michael Gaine’s death, confirming no charges and no file submitted to the DPP

Members of the army getting ready to search an area on on a narrow road off the N71 just before the farm of Michael Gaine at Carrig East, Kenmare, Co Kerry. Picture: Dan Linehan

The man who was arrested and later released without charge in connection with farmer Michael Gaine’s death is free to leave the country, and no file has been passed to the DPP, according to sources.

The man, who is in his 50s, was arrested on Sunday afternoon. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was questioned at length in Killarney Garda Station.

After around four interviews with detectives investigating the death of the 56-year-old farmer, gardaí released the man without charge at 10.15pm on Monday.

A person close to the case told the Irish Examiner: “No file was passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He is a free man.” 

Pat Mann, the lawyer who represents the arrested man, declined to comment when asked about his client.

There was intense garda activity over the weekend at a site on Mr Gaine’s 1,000-acre farm, sparked by the shock discovery by a farming contractor of human tissue from a slurry spreader on Friday.

At the time, the man — who has carried out contract work for the family for years — was spreading slurry from one of Mr Gaine’s two slurry tanks under his cattle shed. It was while he was doing this that a mechanism in the slurry spreader is understood to have jammed and human tissue was subsequently found.

Michael Gaine

Gardaí confirmed on Saturday evening that tests conducted by State pathologist Sally Anne Collis and forensic anthropologist Laureen Buckley showed the tissue was human.

Mr Gaine went missing on March 20, and was last seen alive by staff at the Centra in Kenmare where he bought phone credit and a lunch roll. The jeep he was driving was found at the farm he ran near Moll’s Gap, along with his wallet and house keys.

The investigation was upgraded to homicide on April 29. His wife Janice and his sister Noreen made an emotional plea for information the following day.

Since he was reported missing, gardaí, Civil Defence, Kerry Mountain Rescue, Defence Forces soldiers and hundreds of volunteers had searched for him in and around the farm.