MURDER PROBE AS KILLER STABBED TO DEATH
Inquiry centres on where and why violent thug was attacked
Give me the money, don’t look into my face
KEVIN WALSH TO DRIVER IN 2012 ATTACK
GARDAI have launched a murder investigation after this killer was stabbed – and then managed to get home in a taxi before he died.
Sources have told the Irish Mirror that Kevin Walsh – who killed a man when he was a teen – suffered at least one stab wound in the attack early on Sunday.
He was found criticallly injured by paramedics at his home in Lucan, West Dublin, and was rushed to hospital – but lost his fight for life that evening.
Sources confirmed gardai probing the 34-year-old’s death are satisfied he was not attacked in his home.
They have now upgraded his death to a murder inquiry and are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
Officers were called to the Shackleton area of Lucan at 3am on Sunday by National Ambulance Service paramedics.
A spokesman said: “The man was taken to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown for treatment of his injuries. He passed away on Sunday at approximately 6.30pm.
“The services of the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested by gardai and a postmortem is expected to take place.
“Any road users who were travelling in the vicinity of Allenton, Tallaght, Dublin 24 and Shackleton, Lucan, Co Dublin at this time and who may have camera footage [including dash cam] is asked to make this available.
“Anyone with information in relation to this incident is asked to contact Lucan Garda station on 01 666 7300, the Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any station.”
The spokeswoman added detectives believe Walsh was injured when he got the taxi home.
She said: “An Garda Siochana can confirm the injured male travelled via taxi from the Allenton area in Tallaght, Dublin 24 to an address in the Shackleton residential area of Lucan in the early hours of Sunday.” Gardai were last night trying to establish where in Tallaght Mr Walsh was attacked – and the motive for the assault.
The victim was well known to gardai and had amassed almost 70 convictions including manslaughter.
In 2006, he was sentenced to three years in St Patrick’s Institution, for killing a 20-year-old man in a drunken row in 2005 – when he was just 16.
Walsh, who then had an address at Allenton Green in Tallaght, had originally been charged with murdering James Burke between September 22 and 26, 2005 at the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, Clondalkin, West Dublin.
Walsh’s trial heard the victim’s body lay undiscovered for two days in a field beside the shopping centre after a drinkfuelled row.
He was acquitted of murder – but convicted of manslaughter and jailed for eight years – with the final five suspended.
But Walsh continued his criminality after he was released and in 2013 he was jailed for three-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to a taxi driver and the hijacking of his car at Allenton Drive, Tallaght, on December 11, 2012.
The court heard the killer and his accomplice hailed the car and asked the driver to take them to a chipper.
At a point in the journey, Walsh told the driver to stop the car and put both his arms around the driver’s neck.
He hit the victim in the face and told him: “Give me the money, don’t look into my face.”
A year later he was given seven years in prison for possessing a pipe bomb – and attempting to hijack another taxi.
Gardai found the device – stuffed with nails and other shrapnel – after officers got a tip-off about a device under a car in Firhouse, South Dublin.
Army bomb experts made the bomb safe in an operation in which 25 homes were evacuated.