GARDAÍ IN Bandon in west Cork were last night poised to launch a second murder investigation in as many days following the discovery of the body of a second man in the river near the town yesterday.
Gardaí became concerned for the safety of John Forrester (42) after they were unable to trace his whereabouts in the course of their investigation into the murder of Jonathan Duke, whose body was found in the Bandon river.
Gardaí under Supt Eddie Mac Eoin of Bandon Garda station began a search of the river yesterday involving local officers, members of the Garda Water Unit and members of the local civil defence team.
Two local gardaí, Garda Colin O’Mahony and Garda Joe Toner, who are both keen kayakers, also joined in the search and found Mr Forrester’s body about a kilometre downstream from Bandon Bridge shortly after 11am. Mr Forrester’s body was taken to Cork University Hospital where Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster began a post-mortem examination which confirmed that Mr Forrester had died a violent death.
It is understood Mr Forrester had suffered a number of stab wounds to the neck and head while his hands and feet were bound with rope before he died.
A team from the Garda Technical Bureau carried out a forensic examination of a house at Sean Hales Place near Bandon Bridge, where gardaí believe Mr Forrester was assaulted on Saturday evening.
Gardaí are working on the theory that Mr Forrester was assaulted in a flat in the house and suffered stab wounds there as Garda technical experts found a lot of blood in the flat.
Gardaí believe that Mr Forrester’s body was thrown over a railing into the Bandon, which flows just beside the house, but it is unclear whether or not he was dead when he entered the river.
Mr Forrester used to stay in a ground-floor flat in the house, which is near the centre of Bandon, and it was known that people used to gather in an upstairs flat in the house for drinks parties.
A native of Blackpool in England, Mr Forrester had been living in Ireland since at least 2007 and was living in Bandon for the past two years or so where he was a familiar face around the town.
Mr Forrester was unemployed and in receipt of social welfare and living in rented accommodation in the town.
Gardaí were last night in the process of notifying his family in the UK of his death.
A large crowd of onlookers had gathered on the Cork Road outside Bandon yesterday at midday as Mr Forrester’s body was taken from the river by gardaí and some spoke of their shock at recent events in the town.
Meanwhile funeral arrangements were being finalised yesterday for the other man whose body was recovered from the river, 27-year-old Jonathan Duke, a native of Deerpark on the western side of Bandon. Mr Duke – who was known as “Dukey” to his friends – is survived by his six-year-old daughter, Angel, his mother, Michelle, and his sisters, Cindy, Nicole and Shannon.
His death is the second tragedy to befall the family in recent years with his mother Michelle’s partner, Michael Lordan, dying in October 2008 some time after being the victim of an assault in the town.
Two local men were later jailed for the assault on Lordan with one man receiving a four-year sentence and another man receiving an 18-month sentence from Judge Patrick Moran at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
