The family and friends of a Cork woman who was murdered while working in Jury's Inn in Limerick 18 months ago picketed a meeting of the Health and Safety Authority in Cork city last night in a bid to urge the authority to hold the hotel chain accountable for her death.
The mother, sisters and brother of Grainne Dillon (24), Glounthaune, Co Cork, held a protest outside the Imperial Hotel on the South Mall as members of the HSA made their way in for a meeting to discuss forthcoming smoking legislation.
"For the last 18 months, we've been trying to motivate the HSA to prosecute Jury's, and got nowhere. It takes pressure from the media to get a response, but we'll keep the pressure on until we get justice for Grainne," Ms Aoife Dillon, a sister of the dead woman, insisted yesterday evening.
Ms Dillon was working as night manager at the hotel on January 5th, 2002, when she died after being shot by a Portuguese night porter. Paulo Nascimento (27) was sentenced to life in prison last March, after he pleaded guilty to the murder of the Cork woman, whom he shot three times during the course of taking €3, 000 from the hotel safe.
Ms Aoife Dillon said yesterday that they wanted Jury's to face criminal prosecution charges for their part in Grainne's death.
"Grainne was allowed into a situation that led to her death. She was only a trainee, so why was she given responsibility for managing the hotel with only a night porter for company.
"The findings of the state pathologist were that Grainne bled to death, and that means that if she'd only been able to contact somebody she might have lived. If the hotel knew that night managers would be alone, why did they not give them personal alarms? Because they didn't, our family wakes up every day wondering 'what if'," 29-year-old Ms Dillon added.
In a statement yesterday, the HSA expressed its sympathy to the Dillon family and said it deeply regrets their tragic loss.
It said the murder of the trainee hotel manager was solely a matter for the gardaí and that it didn't intervene because of the criminal nature of the case. The authority added that since the criminal conviction was secured, it had launched its own investigation, which is ongoing and expected to be completed in coming weeks.
However, the Dillon family said unacceptable security measures were put in place at Jury's, which contributed to the 24-year-old's murder.
The hotel chain has denied any wrongdoing and rejected any question of being lax with staff or guest safety.