A WOMAN whose badly charred body was discovered in a burning car near her apartment where her eight-year-old son lay sleeping, started the fire herself, an inquest heard yesterday.
Shukuratu Abiola Williams (42), Hendrick Street, off Blackhall Place, Dublin, was discovered in her partially burned silver Nissan Primera in October 2006, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard.
A postmortem by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis found that Ms Williams died from the inhalation of fire gases and from extensive burns.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the inquest into her death that he was satisfied it was a self-inflicted death and there was no third-party involvement.
The inquest heard that the Garda investigation into Ms Williams's death was initially treated as a potential murder inquiry, following a statement by Alan Geoghegan, a homeless man, who told gardaí that on the morning of October 10th he saw two youths running away from the car. He subsequently withdrew his statement.
Sgt Mark Watters of Bridewell Garda station said gardaí had no reason to believe anyone else was involved and there were no suspicious circumstances in the death.
Firefighters and ambulance personnel attended the scene at Hendrick Street at 4.20am on October 10th following an emergency call from a member of the public. Ms Williams's badly charred body was discovered in the driver's seat of a car engulfed in flames.
An examination of the vehicle by Sgt Shane Henry of the ballistics section of the Garda Technical Bureau revealed that the fire originated within the vehicle and traces of "partially evaporated petrol vapour" were found in all of the foot wells of the car. A gas lighter was located on the floor at the driver's side of the locked car.
Charles Hegarty, an engineer who carried out an independent examination of the car, told the court he believed the fire had started in the left rear area of the vehicle and said no electrical faults were detected.
Dr Farrell said her death was self-inflicted, but he could not return a verdict of death by suicide because he was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms Williams had taken her own life and that she intended to do so.