Gardaí are investigating after a man who was found naked and badly injured under the stairs of a house in Drogheda died in hospital on Christmas Eve.
He has been named locally as Brian Reynolds, aged in his 40s, who owned Kits Stop N Shop on the Rathmullen Park area of the Co Louth town.
It is suspected a number of men broke into a property where he was staying in the Rathmullen Park area and attacked him with hammers.
Gardaí said the man was found at 7.30pm on Thursday. He was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, where he died on Saturday evening.
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“He was staying with a close relative as they were very ill and he was looking after them, and his attackers knew where to find him,” a source said. “The relative was upstairs in bed and heard the screams as the attack happened.”
A Garda spokesman said gardaí are investigating the circumstances of the man’s death. The office of the State Pathologist and local coroner have been notified and a postmortem examination will be conducted on Monday.