Woman and Civil Defence cornered the killer

A BRAVE unnamed woman followed Mark Hennessy’s black Nissan Qashqai car into Cherrywood industrial estate, all the while relaying information to the gardaí as Civil Defence volunteers closed in on Jastine Valdez’s killer, it has emerged.

The female member of the public followed the car into the parking lot, closely followed by Civil Defence volunteers.

The volunteers have told how they helped tracked down killer Hennessy’s car and blocked his escape before he was shot dead by gardaí.

Civil Defence volunteers in both Dublin and Wicklow were mobilised on Sunday in order to help the gardaí look for the black Nissan Qashqai which Hennessy was driving.

According to deputy Dublin Civil Defence officer Fergus Byrne, who was in charge over the weekend, Civil Defence vol- unteers were deployed to search for the suspect’s car.

‘[On the day] we deployed 30 volunteers in eight vehicles to search car parks in the Dún Laoghaire and South Dublin area down towards Killiney, Dalkey, and to the Wicklow border to keep a look out for the black Nissan Qashqai,’ said Mr Byrne.

Mr Byrne said that three volunteers in one of the vehicles spotted the Nissan Qashqai at an intersection on the N11 at which point they rang the control room where Mr Byrne was coordinating the search.

‘They were giving us a rundown as to the direction they were going. While they were doing that I had rang the guards and told them to try and get vehicles to intercept,’ said Mr Byrne, ‘They headed to the Cherrywood industrial estate, [but] between our vehicle and the Qashqai there was another member of the public, unbeknownst to us at the time, who was also following the vehicle and on the phone to the guards.’

When they arrived at the Cher- rywood car park the volunteers were told to drive by Hennessy’s Qashqai so he wouldn’t suspect he was being followed. However, the female driver of the other car followed the Qashqai into the parking lot.

‘Our lads in the van were then fearful for the wellbeing of the lady in the car given the history. So they doubledbacked down just to make sure she was okay.

‘She flagged them down, she said he is definitely in there and then they used their vehicle to block his exit from the car park and they just awaited the arrival of the gardaí,’ Mr Byrne said.

They blocked his exit from car park