Man was stabbed 30 times and buried in shallow grave

The mother of a young man stabbed to death and buried in a shallow grave has told Dublin City Coroner's Court she believed her son's killers "must be in hell".

Mr Neil Hanlon (22), Downpatrick Road, Crumlin, Dublin, died in September 2001 after he was stabbed more than 30 times and buried in a shallow grave on waste ground, the court heard yesterday. Mr Hanlon's remains were not discovered until February 2002.

Ms Geraldine Hanlon gave evidence that her son left the family home shortly before 9 p.m. on September 28th, 2002. He said he was going to the local shop to buy cigarettes for himself and sweets for his young daughter who was staying in the house. This was the last time his family saw him alive.

Ms Hanlon told Dublin City Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, her son had attended secondary school at the Christian Brothers School, St Agnes Road, Crumlin and had a keen interest in football. At 14 he started to take ecstasy and lost interest in school and sports, and by the age of 15 or 16 he had started taking heroin.

She said she had not been aware of her son's drug addiction until she was shown a newspaper article reporting that he had been charged with possession of stolen goods. He was 16 at the time but had told gardaí he was 19.

He was persuaded to enter a drugs rehabilitation programme and eventually became an apprentice bricklayer. However, she said, he "kept slipping back into the drug scene". In the weeks before his disappearance he became withdrawn and reluctant to leave the house and told his parents not to answer the front door.

On the night he went missing, a boat house at St Kevin's College, Clogher Road, Crumlin, was burnt down. Just over four months later gardaí, following information from a confidential source, discovered his body on the grounds of the same school, some distance from the site of the boat house. His body was found lying face down in a grave covered with 10 inches of broken glass and soil. The grave had been covered over with a washing machine that had been abandoned at the scene prior to Mr Hanlon's disappearance.

State Pathologist Dr John Harbison told the court that Mr Hanlon had sustained "30 or more stab wounds" to the neck and chest. The injuries to his neck had severed his jugular vein and both lungs had been penetrated by stab wounds.

He concluded that Mr Hanlon had died from blood loss due to his stab wounds.

Det Sgt Joe O'Hara, told the court that gardaí believed Mr Hanlon had spent his last moments in the boat house, although there was no forensic proof. Four people had been questioned in relation to his death, but no charges had been made and the file remained open. The jury at yesterday's inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing by a person or persons unknown.