Tenant finds human skull in bag behind garden shed

A human skull which was found in the back garden of a house in south Dublin yesterday will undergo a forensic examination this morning.

The discovery was made by a Polish tenant of a house in Orlagh Grove Estate, Knocklyon, while she was clearing some undergrowth at the back of the garden shed at about 1pm yesterday.

The skull was in a plastic bag. A doctor on the scene said it was that of an adult male.

Gardaí from the local detective unit in Rathfarnham removed the skull yesterday evening and brought it to the City Morgue in Store Street, Dublin. Detectives say they believe it had been in the garden for at most five years.

The skull will be examined by the State Pathologist's Office today to determine the cause of death. Then DNA tests will be carried out to identify it. The results will be sent to the Garda who will also be searching through their databases of missing persons to try and find a match.

The Garda Technical Bureau is likely to be on site this morning to carry out a more thorough search of the garden, though no other remains were found yesterday afternoon.

The four-bedroom house, which was built in 1990, is in a cul-de-sac which is part of a relatively new housing estate.

The garden backs on to homes on a neighbouring estate and there is no public access to it from the rear.

Yesterday afternoon, a full skip was in the driveway and the curtains were closed in the house.

Locals said the house had been rented, most recently by Polish tenants, but rented houses were unusual in the estate as it is overwhelmingly an owner-occupier area populated mostly by young families. A resident said: "it was quite shocking really. It is just a residential area.

"There's no bad crimes or anything in this area. There are so many children here. It's a terrible thing to happen."

The Polish tenants were interviewed by gardaí yesterday afternoon, but they are not suspects in the case.