Gardai investigating the murder of Mr Anthony Jenkinson, who died from repeated blows to the head, say he may have been killed because of a dispute about drugs money.
He was discovered less than 1 1/2 miles from his Kilbarrack home lying face down in St Anne's Park, Raheny, on Sunday morning by a man out walking with his dog.
A post-mortem revealed that Mr Jenkinson (28) had been killed at the scene about 12.30 a.m. on Sunday.
Gardai yesterday used chain saws and scythes to clear shrubs from a wooded area in the park as they searched for the murder weapon. It was not found but they suspect the victim was beaten to death with a blunt instrument, possibly a wheelbrace or a hammer.
Mr Jenkinson was "known to gardai". He lived at Mount Olive Road, Kilbarrack, and had convictions for larceny, robbery and drug possession dating from the time he was 17.
As a criminal, he was very much a small-time player with most of his illegal activities confined to robbery in the Clontarf, Raheny and Howth areas.
He would have come into contact with bigger figures in the criminal world but it would have been as a member of a gang rather than an initiator. His drug activities are believed not to have been extensive, a fact confirmed by gardai and anti-drugs activists in the area. So while gardai are investigating the possibility he was killed in a dispute over drug money, they stress the motive is still open. An argument over the proceeds of a robbery or personal vendetta have also been mentioned.
Mr Jenkinson was tried in January 1999 for the armed robbery of the post office in Kilbarrack shopping centre on March 22nd, 1997. A jury was told he posed as a delivery man for a Chinese take-away and phoned the security guard working in the shopping centre to say the restaurant he worked for had food left over and would be happy to deliver.
The court heard that the security guard told him to come round and when he did Mr Jenkinson and two other men were let into the security guard's hut and brought into the office. The gang, armed with an imitation hand gun and hammers, tied up and gagged the security man. When they opened the safe there was no money in it and they left empty-handed.
The security guard told the court how he managed to contact gardai by crawling to a phone and dialling 999 with a spoon held in his mouth.
Mr Jenkinson was arrested and forensic tests revealed that metal shards on his clothing coincided with metal in the safe. A jury found him guilty and he was given a nine-year sentence.
The case went to the Court of Appeal where judges overturned the conviction because they found flaws in the way the jury was instructed to deal with Mr Jenkinson's identification.
They ordered a retrial and set the date as February 6th this year. The case collapsed when a State witness failed to turn up.