Cocaine in system of talented TV carpenter who died after car fire

Karl Cullen (34) regularly appeared on RTÉ’s ‘Room to Improve’ show

A talented carpenter who died when the car he was driving went up in flames may have lost control of the vehicle due to the presence of cocaine and antidepressants in his system, an inquest has been told.

Karl Cullen (34) from Rockfield, Milehouse, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, died two years ago from carbon monoxide poisoning after the Volkswagen Touareg he was driving veered onto the wrong side of the road, “glanced off a tree” and went on fire.

Mr Cullen, who was a popular member of his local community, ran a successful bespoke kitchen business and regularly appeared on RTÉ’s Room to Improve.

Presenter Dermot Bannon was among the many people to pay tribute to the young Wexford man, describing him as an “all-round wonderful soul”.

The inquest into his death was told how the tragic incident occurred on the R744 in Clonhaston, near Enniscorthy, at about 7.30pm on May 29, 2022.

While the level of smoke inhalation ultimately led to his death, investigators tried to determine what caused the vehicle to go on fire in the first place.

A forensic collision investigator said the level of impact with the tree was “highly unlikely to be a factor in the fire” since it had been a minor collision.

A toxicology report showed there was a concoction of drugs in his system that may have contributed to the accident, Wexford Coroner’s Court was told.

Locals desperately attempted to get Mr Cullen out of the car before it caught fire, but all the doors were locked. Some used bricks to try to smash the windows in an attempt to save Mr Cullen’s life.

Witness Joan Joyce recalled how she was at home in her sitting room with her husband and son when she suddenly heard “an engine revving on the road outside”. She looked out the window and her son said he thought there was a car stuck in the ditch.

Ms Joyce rushed out of the house and climbed over her front wall. When she approached the vehicle, it was “revving really loudly and the wheels were spinning”.

She said the driver’s head was down, his chin was against his chest and it “looked like he was frothing from his mouth”. It was “like he was having a fit or something,” she added.

“I started banging on the front passenger window but couldn’t get any response,” she told the inquest. “I continued to bang on the window and tried to open all the doors but they were all locked. My son came out and tried to get into the jeep. My other son got a brick from the garden and tried to break the side window to get the man out of the car.

“The car was still revving at this time. I then noticed a fire coming from underneath the jeep, it looked like it was travelling from underneath the gear stick area.”

Ms Joyce immediately called emergency services. At this point, there was a lot of smoke coming from the vehicle. Another man at the scene managed to break the back window, but the fire became so intense “we all had to get away,” she said.

Witness Ivanna Yates told the inquest how she was driving home from a trip to Kilkenny with her daughter when she met a white vehicle coming towards her on the R744. She moved to avoid it, but the other vehicle didn’t swerve and “just kept heading towards the ditch”.

Ms Yates pulled in on the road, turned on her hazard lights and headed back towards the vehicle.

“The car went on fire almost straightaway in split seconds and there was a lot of traffic backing up,” she said. “All the doors were closed and locked. I could see men trying to open the doors.”

Ms Yates said the car wasn’t travelling fast and “just veered off the road. There was a calmness to it all. There wasn’t speed involved”.

She said the fire appeared to have started underneath the car.

Gda Tom Bolger, a forensic collision investigator from Wexford garda station, said the nature of the impact would not be consistent with causing a fatal injury or starting a fire because it had been a “moderate glancing impact”.

Gda Bolger said the Volkswagen had “travelled erratically” for around 257 metres before the collision. It came to a complete stop 15 metres after hitting the tree.

“At an unknown stage, the Volkswagen went on fire and completely burnt out,” he said.

The autopsy report showed Mr Cullen died from carbon monoxide poisoning. A toxicology report found cocaine and a variety of anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications in his system.

He said the effects of the substances may have to be considered as a possible contributory factor in the incident.

Gda Bolger said the cause of the vehicle fire could not be established because the damage was so significant. It could not be determined where – or how – the fire started.

Coroner Dr Sean Nixon asked Mr Cullen’s family whether he had any history of epilepsy or seizures but they said he did not.

Dr Nixon said “he may have suffered some form of a seizure” due to the drugs in his system, which could have caused him to lose consciousness.

He said the engine revving and wheels spinning was of “possible significance” because it may have indicated there was pressure being applied to the accelerator when he was in the ditch.

“I have seen this happen where someone gets a seizure and their foot goes onto the accelerator,” Dr Nixon said.

“The drugs in his system may have altered his ability to control the vehicle. The fact there was some foaming at his mouth may indicate a seizure, but we can’t confirm this,” he added.

Dr Nixon gave a verdict of death by misadventure.

He offered his condolences to Mr Cullen’s family and friends on the loss of “such a young person in such a tragic way”.

Mr Cullen was the eldest of three sons.

“He played a huge part on ‘Room to Improve’ over the years, creating some of the most beautiful joinery”

He played for Shamrocks GAA Club in Enniscorthy, with his clubmates describing him as a “fantastic sportsman”.

Following his death, Dermot Bannon paid tribute to his “unbelievably talented” colleague.

“He played a huge part on Room to Improve over the years, creating some of the most beautiful joinery,” he said. “He was a fantastic problem solver, enthusiastic collaborator and an all-round wonderful soul.

“Heartbroken for his parents Karl and Annette, his brothers Darren and Diarmuid and all his family.”

Mr Cullen’s close friends described him as incredible, kind, sensitive and nostalgic.

His friend Mick Weaver told his funeral mass how he was a very protective older brother who took this role “very, very seriously”.

He said: “He was competitive and he believed in his skills and his competitiveness. He had such a drive to succeed. School sports days were taken as seriously as the Olympics. There was never a finish line, he was always onto the next challenge.

“Mixing with the best in the business on RTÉ’s Room to Improve, putting in kitchens in homes worth more than a million, he never lost touch with his baseline and showed empathy with each individual, often making kitchens at a loss because he demanded perfection.”

Domestic violence victims are being forced either into homelessness or back into abusive relationships because the housing crisis is leaving women and children who flee with “simply nowhere” to go. A number of domestic abuse refuges across Ireland have reported cases where victims were forced to stay in refuges for over a year, due to a lack of affordable accommodation for them and their children.

Previously, survivors might have stayed in refuge accommodation for only six to eight weeks.

Refuges say women and children are being put in “extreme” danger, because some survivors are choosing to go back to their abusive partners rather than make their children homeless.

At the moment, Ireland has no dedicated refuge services for male victims.

While Ireland’s frontline domestic violence services tend to prefer to try to remove the perpetrator from the family home, in many cases this is not possible – either because a woman does not reach the threshold to get a barring order, or because she does not feel that it is safe to try to get one.

Seven domestic violence services across the country said they were seeing situations where women were forced to stay in emergency accommodation for far longer, because they have nowhere else to go.

The West Cork Women’s Project said housing had emerged as one of the biggest issues for domestic violence services. It said it was concerned that refuges were effectively “warehousing” survivors who were left with nowhere to go, which also had a knock-on effect on the space available in refuges.

In Donegal, Marie Hainsworth of the Donegal Domestic Violence Service said the housing crisis had emerged as a major problem for women and children fleeing an abusive home.

“We’ve consistently had clients who have been living in refuge accommodation for more than a year, initially only supposed to be three months,” she said.

“It’s a major issue. I have known of women who have moved out of a refuge, moved into private rented accommodation, and then said, ‘I’m actually going to go back [to their former partner] for financial reasons’.

“They might have chosen to get out of the abusive relationship but their only option is to go back, because, practically, they can’t cope. They don’t want to make their children homeless.”

Ms Hainsworth said that, in many cases, the family home the woman had fled could be private rented accommodation. “So you are at the whim of the landlord. Sometimes they might say, ‘This is too chaotic, neither of you are having the property’,” she said. “Other times, the perpetrator is the one who is earning the money so he is the ‘reliable’ renter and he gets to stay there.”

Denise Dunne is the director of services at the Adapt refuge in Limerick, – one of the biggest such services in the country. She said that move-on accommodation for women who are ready to leave refuges was “very difficult to get”.

She said her service was seeing women with communities in the city being forced into more rural areas, possibly farther from their support networks.

“A couple of years ago, the semi-solution was to go on the local authority housing list. Survivors would present, and be placed in a family hub. But what’s happening is the family hubs are full,” Ms Dunne said.

This was leading to women being stranded in refuges for “well over a year”.

Ms Dunne said survivors were now being moved out of refuges into hotels by local authorities scrambling to find housing for them. “Women are being moved from pillar to post – and it’s unfair, because at the end of the day the abuser is sitting in the house,” she said.

Catherine McCurdy, the director of operations with Wexford Women’s Refuge, said it also tried wherever possible to keep women in the family home and to remove the perpetrator in abusive situations. But its refuge, like all others across the country, is still experiencing high demand from women in crisis.

Ms McCurdy said her service also had a good relationship with its local authority, which was trying its best to accommodate women and children but was struggling with the housing crisis.

While she praised the Government’s new state agency Cuan, which is trying to increase refuge provision across the country, she said “there was not a refuge in Ireland” that wasn’t heavily reliant on the generosity of local donors.

Clare Haven Services said the lack of housing accommodation was directly affecting its work. It said refuges were “not homes”, and that women and children were at risk of becoming institutionalised from living in refuges long-term.

Anyone who needs help can call Safe Ireland’s national helpline on 1800 341 900

“Women are being moved from pillar to post – and it’s unfair, because the abuser is sitting in the house”