Garda to resubmit file on fatal stabbing of Dean Fitzpatrick to DPP

Gardaí are planning to resubmit a case file to the Director of Public Prosecutions as part of their investigation into the fatal stabbing of Dean Fitzpatrick.

Statements have now been made by two key witnesses in the case who were in the apartment in north Dublin on Saturday night when the 23-year-old father of one sustained a fatal stab wound.

The chief suspect in the case presented himself to gardaí on Sunday about 12 hours after the murder at 11.30pm on Saturday at the Burnell Square apartments, Northern Cross, Malahide Road, in north Dublin.

He was arrested on Sunday afternoon and questioned through the night after waiving his right to have his questioning suspended overnight to allow him to sleep.

He was then released without charge on Monday afternoon, after his period of detention expired.

Evidence and statement
Gardaí investigating the killing contacted the DPP's office early on Monday and relayed to it the evidence they had gathered and the statement they had taken from the chief suspect.

The DPP decided then there was insufficient evidence to charge the suspect with any offence and he was freed.

However, with statements having been taken from two people who were in the apartment when Mr Fitzpatrick was killed and other evidence having been gathered, gardaí plan to send a full file to the DPP.

Her office will then re-evaluate the file to determine if there is a criminal case to answer.

The knife with which the dead man was wounded has been found at the scene.

The chief suspect, who was known to Mr Fitzpatrick, accepts he was in the apartment when the victim was fatally stabbed.

Mr Fitzpatrick was taken to nearby Beaumont Hospital but was pronounced dead there a short time later. The dead man was originally from Donaghmede in north Dublin. He did not live in the apartment where he was killed but had gone there to socialise on Saturday night.

Double tragedy
Mr Fitzpatrick's death marks the second high-profile tragedy to have struck the family within the past few years.

In 2008, his 15-year-old sister, Amy Fitzpatrick, went missing in Spain four years after she and her brother went to live there with their mother, Audrey Fitzpatrick, and her partner, Dave Mahon.

Amy Fitzpatrick was last seen alive walking home from a friend’s house near Mijas on the Costa del Sol on New Year’s Day 2008.