Dessie Fox suspect quizzed by gardaí
Criminal may have had role in other killing
A CRIMINAL in custody over the cold-case murder of wealthy bookmaker Dessie Fox is also a suspect in one of Ireland’s most violent and macabre murders in recent years, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.
The 50-year-old suspect, from Dublin, was being questioned by gardaí last night over the Fox killing having been arrested out of Cloverhill jail yesterday.
For legal reasons, the Mail cannot reveal the details of the other violent murder that he has been linked to.
The other suspect in the Fox case, aged 61 and also from Dublin, was only recently released from jail having served a prison sentence for membership of the IRA.
Both men continued to be questioned last night over the Fox murder.
On the September 30, 1990, 47-year-old Dessie Fox, was driving from his home in Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, to a race meeting in the Curragh in Co. Kildare when he was ambushed by an armed gang.
As he drove to the venue, the occupants of a red Toyota Carina behind him opened fire on his car at Healy’s Bridge in Prosperous, Co. Kildare, causing damage to one of his front tyres.
He attempted to reverse away but his vehicle left the road, forcing him to stop. The raiders then caught up with him and as they approached, one of them shot with a handgun through the passenger door. The bullet entered Fox’s leg, severing a main artery and killing him.
A black leather briefcase containing IR£20,000 was stolen from Fox’s car, along with a canvas money bag, paperwork, a portable car phone and car keys.
The canvas bag and car phone were later recovered. The red Toyota Carina that the armed men were driving was recovered the next day.
Gardaí believe the gang targeted Fox because he was a bookmaker and would usually have a large amount of cash with him. The arrests bring to 19 the number of people detained over the years in relation to the murder. All previous arrests came in the first year after the murder. Nobody has been charged.
The two men arrested are being held in Naas and Leixlip Garda stations under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act 1939.
Fox was married with three daughters. In an appeal about her father’s murder on the 20th anniversary in 2010, Lorna Fox O’Mahony said her family’s lives had been shattered. She was 15 at the time of his death, her older sister 19, and the youngest girl was just seven.
‘That sense of loss has never diminished, but the horror of how he died has also sunk in. For us to deal with this, we need to know the truth of what happened on that day,’ she said. ‘It has been, and continues to be, a struggle to deal with not knowing.’
ali.bracken@dailymail.ie
‘We need to know the truth’