Gardaí in Co Tipperary were continuing on Friday night to question a man arrested in connection with the death of a man whose body was found early on Wednesday morning at a rented house on the Tipperary-Limerick border.
Detectives arrested the 27-year-old Polish man in Dublin at around 4.30pm on Thursday, and brought him to a Garda station in Co Tipperary for questioning about the death of the man who was found unresponsive in the house between Kilcross, Co Tipperary, and Galbally, Co Limerick.
The dead man, who has been named locally as Polish national Maciej Nowak (32), who worked in construction and was one of a number of Polish nationals renting the isolated two-storey house at Ballycrana, 1.5km from Kilcross and 2km from Galbally. Gardaí believe he was celebrating his 32nd birthday on St Stephen’s night with a number of other people when a row broke out.
The body of Mr Nowak was found shortly after 4am on Wednesday in a downstairs room in the house by members of the Armed Support Unit from Cahir after they arrived to provide support to local uniformed officers. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and his body was later removed to University Hospital Waterford. Gardaí later issued a statement confirming that a postmortem had been completed. It is understood Mr Nowak had suffered injuries consistent with an assault.
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Gardaí have appealed to any person who attended the party and has any information regarding the assault on Mr Nowak to contact them at Tipperary Garda station where an incident room has been set up to co-ordinate the investigation, which has been given all the resources associated with a murder inquiry.
“Any person with any information that can assist gardaí with this investigation is asked to contact Tipperary Town Garda station on 062 80670, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station,” said Garda Press in a statement issued this week.
The suspect arrested by detectives for questioning about the assault on Mr Nowak is being held at a station in Co Tipperary where he is detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act which allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to 24 hours before they must be either charged or released.
Meanwhile the house at Ballycrana where Mr Nowak was found remained cordoned off on Friday as detectives from the Garda Technical Bureau continued to examine the house for DNA and other evidence which could assist investigators. Gardaí had earlier carried out door-to-door inquiries in Ballycrana, interviewing neighbours to see if they had heard any disturbance from the house where Mr Nowak was found unresponsive. It is understood gardaí have also seized a number of mobile phones as part of their investigation.
News of Mr Nowak’s death has shocked locals in both Kilross and Galbally, where local Independent member of Limerick City and County Council, Eddie Ryan said that people were still coming to terms with the sad news that somebody had died violently in their community. “There is dismay that something like this should happen over Christmas, and that it should happen here in our midst because we are a closely-knit community here – any death is a tragedy, but the tragic circumstances of this one right in our community has really shocked and saddened people.”
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