Boy (2) found dead had been subject of major Garda alert

Gardaí are expected to launch a murder inquiry after the death of a two-year-old boy in south Dublin.

The child had been the subject of a nationwide safety alert and Garda search when the authorities became concerned for his safety recently.

That incident ended peacefully after the child was found safe and well.

However, the apparent murder of the same child this afternoon is likely to bring into sharp focus how concerns for him were handled by the authorities in recent months.

Gardaí were this evening still trying to trace the boy’s father, a foreign national in his early 60s, to inform him his son was dead.

Gardaí believe the boy was fatally stabbed in an attack at top floor apartment at the Ridge Hall complex on the Shanganagh Road, Shankill, earlier today.

Gardaí were called to the complex after the alarm was raised shortly before 2pm by a woman known to the dead boy’s family.

Another woman who was at the scene at the time was arrested and has been taken for questioning to Dun Laoghaire Garda Station.

The child was pronounced dead by a doctor who was called to the property by the gardaí.

The child’s remains were left at the scene where it underwent a preliminary examination by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis before being removed for a full post mortem.

That is expected to show the boy was stabbed in the upper body.

While the case was being treated as a suspicious death, all of the resources of a murder inquiry are being applied to the investigation.

Garda sources said they expected the investigation to be upgraded to a murder probe when the results of the post mortem were known; likely tomorrow morning.

The scene will undergo a forensic examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau, which was due to get underway this evening.

Earlier this year when the boy was reported missing, a Child Rescue Ireland (CRI) alert was issued. These notices are issued in cases where children are believed to have been abducted and when there is believed to be a serious threat to their safety.

However, a very short period after the alert was issued via the media and across electronic roadside signs controlled by the Garda, the boy was found safe and well with his father.