Gardaí were last night awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination following the suspicious death of a 36-year-old Polish man whose body was found with head injuries in a house in Cork city.
The man, who was named locally as Mr Dariusz Piotrataszewski, was found dead yesterday morning at the house he shared with five other Polish nationals at Fairfield Road in Farranree, Cork city.
It is understood gardaí at Watercourse Road were contacted shortly after 9 a.m. by some of the occupants of the house. When they called to the two-storey detached house, they found the body of the man with blood on his face in a bed in an upstairs bedroom.
Gardaí immediately cordoned off the scene, and local Garda technical officers began preserving the scene for members of the Garda Technical Bureau, who arrived from Dublin later in the evening. They carried out a preliminary examination of the outside of the house.
Senior officers also requested the services of assistant State pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster, who carried out a preliminary examination of the body at the scene before it was moved to the morgue at Cork University Hospital late last night for a post-mortem examination.
Gardaí said last night they were keeping an open mind on the circumstances surrounding the death until the post-mortem examination confirmed how the man died. They would then decide what direction their investigation would take.
While gardaí have not ruled out the possibility that Mr Piotrataszewki may have died as a result of an accident, they are investigating reports that he may have been assaulted after a row in the Blackpool area of the city, and may have suffered an injury there which later proved fatal.
Detectives yesterday spent several hours examining CCTV footage from shops and other businesses in the Blackpool area in the hope that it might have captured an assault matching that described to gardaí.
However, it is understood that gardaí are to date unable to find any evidence on CCTV of an assault in Blackpool.
An initial examination of the area around the house found no signs of blood compatible with the dead man returning home with injuries.
Gardaí are also looking at the possibility that Mr Piotrataszewki may have been assaulted inside the house, and they are hoping that a detailed forensic examination of the house by Garda technical experts today may turn up clues.
It is understood that Mr Piotrataszewki - who is married with children in Poland - had only arrived in Ireland two weeks ago, and had just obtained his work permit. He and a number of other Polish nationals had been drinking for several hours on Thursday.
Gardaí spoke yesterday with the assistance of interpreters to some of the other Polish occupants of the house who only began renting it in December.