The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has begun an investigation following the death of a teenager in a suspected drowning in Co Waterford after the youth fled the scene of an earlier incident in which a senior garda was assaulted.
GSOC named the teenager as Jamie Ducey (18) from Cluain Garbhain in Dungarvan and he was found in a stream at the Sallybrook Estate in Abbeyside area of the town having fled from an earlier incident in which a local garda officer had been assaulted.
GSOC confirmed in a statement that it had been notified of the teenager’s death by An Garda Síochána in accordance with Section 103 of the Garda Síochána Act (2005) and had dispatched a team of four investigators to the scene.
Meanwhile Mr Ducey’s body was removed to Waterford Regional Hospital in Ardkeen for a post-mortem by Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis this afternoon but GSOC have not released Dr Curtis’s findings on the cause of death as the investigation is ongoing.
It is believed that Mr Ducey may have been injured while trying to scale a six foot (1.8m) high railing at the back of the Sallybrook Estate and fell into the two metre wide stagnant stream which runs behind the estate and initial reports suggested that he may have drowned.
Gardaí and emergency services attended at the scene and members of Waterford County Fire Service from Dungarvan cut away a section of the railing to allow emergency personnel remove Mr Ducey’s body from the narrow stream.
The tragedy followed an earlier incident in the nearby Seapark Estate less than a kilometre away sometime before midnight when local Garda Supt Mick Leacy confronted a group of four youths who had thrown a bottle at his home.
It is believed that the youths had been kicking a number of cars when they threw a bottle at at Supt Leacy’s house and when he emerged from his house and confronted them, they fled on foot and he notified Dungarvan Garda station before pursuing them on foot.
It is understood that he caught up with one of the youths on the Clonea Road some 400 to 500 metres from his house, identified himself as a garda to the youth and was engaged in conversation with him, when he was struck on the head from behind with a bottle.
A father of four, Supt Lacey suffered a serious wound to the back of his head and it’s understood that he was taken to Waterford Regional Hospital for treatment where he received seven staples to the wound before he was discharged and returned home.
GSOC is currently seeking witnesses from the Abbeyside area of Dungarvan, namely the White Strand, Seapark, Clonea Road and Sallybrook areas and have asked anyone with information to contact them on 1890 600 800.
Gardaí from Dungarvan arrested two of the 20-year-old youths shortly after the assault the garda while a third youth aged 16 was later arrested on a waste amenity site off the Clonea Road and the three were taken to Dungarvan and Tramore Garda stations.
All three are being questioned about the assault the garda which is being investigated by An Garda Síochána while GSOC is carrying out the investigation into the death of Mr Ducey, the eldest of a family of four children.
A search operation continued for the fourth youth and the Irish Coastguard Sikorski helicopter from Waterford assisted in the search as it was thought that he may have gone into a tidal estuary area near the Clonea Road.
Today as Mr Ducey’s parents, Michael and Lisa left to go to Waterford Regional Hospital to identify their son, Mr Ducey’s uncle, John Ducey described his nephew to reporters as “a lovely young fellow” and said the family was “devastated” at his death.
Meanwhile neighbours of Supt Leacy spoke of their shock at the incident with one man expressing the hope that the incident the garda’s house was random rather than a deliberate targeting of the dormer bungalow in the quiet leafy suburb.
“We’re just hoping it’s random rather than something deliberate because of his work. Mick is highly respected here in the community and the neighbourhood and is a man of the utmost integrity and Dungarvan’s a better place for him being here,” one local said.