SON ARRESTED OVER FATHER’S FATAL STABBING

Man had fled and ‘car-jacked woman teaching daughter to drive’

A VIOLENT criminal stabbed his father to death before running out of the family home and dragging a mother and daughter out of their car.

The convicted criminal’s father died from a single stab wound to the neck with a breadknife at the house in Crumlin in Dublin shortly after 8pm on Sunday night.

Gardaí believe the suspect, who is in his early thirties, was ‘under the influence’ when he launched the fatal attack against his

father. The attack was witnessed by three of the suspect’s half-brothers.

After the stabbing, the suspect fled the house.

Covered in blood, he came across a car containing a mother in her sixties who was giving her daughter, who was in her twenties, a driving lesson and hijacked the vehicle.

The mother was reversing the car around a corner when they were confronted by the attacker who was covered in blood from head to toe.

‘He pulled them out of their car. They were left on the road. They were highly traumatised,’ a source said.

It is understood the mother and daughter are from the Kimmage area.

After the convicted criminal hijacked the car, he drove to Blanchardstown before presenting himself at James Connolly Hospital shortly after. Sources say he was ‘so out of it’ that ‘he believed he himself had been stabbed because of all the blood’.

Gardaí were called after medics established he was uninjured and he was arrested on suspicion of murder. He was deemed unfit to be interviewed late on Sunday night by a doctor at Crumlin Garda station.

He was given a rest period and gardaí began to quiz him yesterday morning over the fatal stabbing.

It is understood that he has not been co-operating with officers.

The suspect is well known to gardaí and spent a number of years behind bars for a previous violent crime.

Sources say that the murder suspect was ‘on a drug and drink rampage’ for a number of days before he killed his father and was ‘spinning out of control’.

The suspect’s father was still alive when emergency services arrived at the scene on Sunday night but died later at St James’s Hospital.

After the suspect fled the scene in the hijacked car on Sunday night, a major manhunt was put in place around Dublin.

It is understood that the suspect has links to Blanchardstown and that Garda searches consequently focused on that area.

But before gardaí apprehended the suspect, he had presented himself at the Blanchardstown hospital.

A senior source said: ‘It appears he went on a drink and drugs rampage. Unfortunately that seems to have culminated in the fatal stabbing of his father.

‘This man, who is in his 30s, is a violent criminal.’

Speaking at Sundrive Road Station yesterday, Superintendent Michael Cryan said: ‘We are appealing to anyone who was in the Rutland Grove/Clogher Road area of Dublin 12 between 8pm and 8.15pm on Sunday the 19th August 2018 to come forward.

‘We are also trying to trace the movements of a Red Toyota Yaris, described as 4-door hatchback with L plates and partial registration 04-WW, that was driven from the scene at Rutland Grove at about 8pm before it was recovered at approximately 8.20pm at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.

‘We would also appeal to anyone with dashcam footage from the Rutland Grove or Connolly Hospital areas in and around the specified times to make it available to investigators.’

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sundrive Road Garda Station 01-666 6600 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.

Spent a number of years behind bars