No search for body in city - gardai

Gardai have confirmed that they carried out no search of the area immediately adjacent to the pub in which Mr Paul McQuaid (25) was last seen.

Mr McQuaid's body was found on Wednesday evening at the foot of a fire escape ladder in Glendenning Lane, off Wicklow Street, in Dublin's city centre. The lane is just two streets from Judge Roy Beans, the bar he left on the night of May 12th.

The discovery was made by a security guard with First Active Building Society on Grafton Street. He had been prompted to look behind the little-used fire escape door as there had been an unpleasant smell in the offices for a number of days.

The lane, which opens onto Wicklow Street, is accessible to the public at all times as a number of fire escapes open into it. Mr McQuaid's body was found face down in an alcove behind a locked grille and down a number of steps. He had apparently fallen from a fire escape which extends diagonally up to about 20 feet above the ground.

A spokesman at the Garda Press Office said that Mr McQuaid, from Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh, was reported missing on May 15th to Clontarf Garda station. The inquiry into his disappearance was conducted from Clontarf.

Some 12 gardai were assigned to the inquiry and the team was in daily contact with Pearse Street Garda station, he said. Judge Roy Beans is in Pearse Street's district. "The team did question staff and members of the public at Judge Roy Beans and studied videotapes and CCTV tapes of the area."

Asked if any search was carried out in the area, he said: "No, but where would they start? You'd be as well starting looking in Wicklow as in Wicklow Street."

Chief Supt Bill O'Donoghue of Pearse Street station said it had not been the responsibility of Pearse Street to conduct a search. Clontarf Garda station would not comment on the case.

A spokeswoman at the Garda Press Office said that when a person was reported missing there "would of course be a search . . . and how detailed the search would be would depend on the circumstances."

Mr Jack Keavney, of Dublin Victim Support, said he did not wish to comment until the matter was further investigated, but he hoped it would be investigated.

Initial post-mortem results indicated the time of death was around the time Mr McQuaid disappeared. The body was clothed in most of the garments he had been wearing that night. However, he could not be positively identified until dental records were received from Fermanagh yesterday.

Ms Emer McCarthy, one of Mr McQuaid's colleagues from the ESB's IT Department, said the family was "very distraught and shocked".