MAN LAY DEAD AT CARAVAN PARK FOR OVER A WEEK
SECURITY measures at a Wexford town caravan park have been called into question after the body of a man lay undiscovered there for more than a week.
The remains of the 56-year-old man were found late on Friday when people staying in the Ferrybank Caravan Park became suspicious about the lack of movement at the man’s motorhome.
Late yesterday (Monday) gardaí named the man as Graham Hughes, from Chesterfield, England.
People staying at the site said that according to a disc on the motorhome’s windscreen its permit to remain there had expired a week earlier in the week.
‘Nobody had been seen at the motorhome, so one of our members, a retired fire officer, knocked on the door, the blinds were pulled and so he shook it.. but there was no response and when he looked through the window we could just make out the head of a man leaning against the blind,’ said Tony Holmes, one of around 40 people staying at the park during last weekend’s Irish Motor Caravan Club (IMCC) rally.
The guards and a doctor were called and after some time the man’s remains were subsequently removed.
‘The doctor said he had been dead for at least week,’ said Mr Holmes, who lives near Enniscorthy.
‘It’s very sad to think that a man could lie there dead for a week and nobody would know.. what sort of security do the council have.. if they had been going around checking surely somebody would have found him?’ said Mr Holmes.
Members of the Caravan Club laid a wreath at the camp site as a mark of respect for the man.
A garda spokesman said an officer got into the caravan through a window and found the man dead in bed. After being examined by a doctor at the scene, his remains were removed to Waterford Regional Hospital for a post mortem.
He said the man, an Englishman who was travelling alone, was last seen alive on September 8. There were no suspicious circumstances.
Mr Holmes said that when he arrived at the caravan park last Thursday, there were only eight caravans at the park, but that number swelled to around 40 by the weekend, all members of the IMMC.
He said the man’s UK-registered motorhome was removed on a low-loader.
Extending sincere sympathies to the family of the man, former county manager Seamus Dooley, the chairman of the Wexford Swimming Pool Management Committee, said it was not unusual for holiday-makers, particularly those visiting the park for the first time, to stay beyond their initial booking period.
Mr Dooley said that at times of light occupancy, staff apply a light touch to such situations.
And he said that over the weekend, management at the park had provided assistance to the gardai in making contact with the relatives of the man who have ‘now been fully informed’.