Woman arrested over man’s death in north Cork released without charge

Gardaí are to prepare a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions after releasing without charge a 47-year-old woman arrested for questioning over the death of a father of six in a house in north Cork earlier this year.

Detectives arrested the woman in a house in Ballyphehane on Cork’s south side just before 11am on Thursday for questioning over the death of Christy Aherne (61) in Buttevant.

The woman arrested was taken to Mallow Garda station where she was held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to 24 hours.

But shortly before 7.30pm on Friday night, the woman was released without charge and gardaí say they will now prepare a full file on the matter which they will send to the DPP for a decision.

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Mr Aherne was found with a stab wound to the upper body in a house at O’Brien Terrace in the north Cork town after paramedics were called to the house on the night of March 24th last.

Paramedics found Mr Aherne unconscious on the floor in a downstairs room and they worked to try to resuscitate him, but he failed to regain consciousness and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Aherne’s body was later removed to Cork University Hospital for a postmortem where Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster confirmed that he had died a violent death.

However, it was unclear how Mr Aherne may have suffered the stab wound and gardaí were awaiting the results of toxicology tests on samples taken at postmortem to see if they might assist them.

It is understood that gardaí received the results of the toxicology tests and they suspect Mr Aherne’s wound was not self-inflicted but that he died as a result of an assault by another person.

Gardaí believe Mr Aherne was assaulted in the house by someone known to him as there was no sign of forced entry at the two-storey house.

Garda technical examiners recovered a number of knives found at the scene and these were later sent for forensic examination to see if they might shed some light on who attacked Mr Aherne.

Gardaí also harvested CCTV footage from around Buttevant to try to establish Mr Aherne’s movements on the night he was attacked and to identify anyone who may have entered his home that night.

A native of Gurranabraher on Cork’s north side, Mr Aherne, who is survived by his wife and five of his six adult children, had been living at O’Brien Terrace in Buttevant for more than five years.