Garda says man (21) arrested over death of woman found in Bray estate house

Neighbours in the Deepdales estate in Bray, Co Wicklow, have expressed shock at the death of a 50-year-old woman in a house in the estate in the early hours of yesterday morning. The Garda Síochána issued a statement saying a man (21) had been arrested at 11am and was being detained under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act at Bray Garda station. They interviewed neighbours about anything they may have seen or heard between 11pm on Thursday and 1.30am yesterday.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis carried out a preliminary examination at the scene and the body was removed shortly after noon yesterday.

Later, gardaí said the woman had died in violent circumstances and they were investigating the case as murder last night.

The cul-de-sac of eight dormer bungalows in which the woman lived was blocked off by Garda crime-scene tape. In other parts of Deepdales, children walked home in school uniforms in the afternoon sunshine, seemingly unconcerned by the closed-off cul de sac and the presence of a lone garda, a Garda van and an unmarked Garda car.

As local people exchanged speculation on what had happened, a man standing at the crime scene tape expressed the community’s shock. “You know it can happen anywhere, but this is like Cuala Grove in 2009 again,” he said.

The reference was to the killing of Sebastian Creane (22) in the Cuala Grove cul de sac in Bray in August 2009. “You always say this is the type of place where you don’t expect this kind of thing, but this, like Cuala Grove, is just the place where you don’t expect it,” he said.

Along the street a woman said she knew most of the people in the cul de sac and was trying to piece together where the ones she knew lived. She had received text messages from abroad, including from the relatives of some of the residents in Deepdales who had seen the area mentioned online and were very concerned. “It is a residential area and some of the people who live here are separated parents with adult children,”she said. “Families would be worried.”

Gardaí said they did not envisage a press briefing on the incident overnight.