An open verdict was returned at the end of an inquest yesterday into a young hit-and-run victim who was killed shortly after being let out of a Garda patrol car in Co Mayo.
He had a very high alcohol reading and the presence in his body of cannabis and amphetamines was also detected, the inquest was told yesterday .
Ms Siobhan Stokes, a chemist with the State Laboratory, informed the inquest into the death of Edwin Gaughan (30), from Castlebar, Co Mayo, that blood and urine samples when tested showed a high alcohol reading.
Ms Stokes agreed with Mr Eoin Garavan BL, for the victim's family, that Mr Gaughan would have been two to three times the legal limit for drink-driving.
She also agreed with counsel that if Mr Gaughan had been driving he would have been "seriously drunk and seriously over the limit".
However, Ms Stokes cross- examined by Mr Patrick Durcan, a solicitor representing three gardaí, said that she could not rule out or rule in the possibility of the cannabis being caused by passive smoking in an enclosed space.
Ms Stokes said it was not possible to say whether the traces of cannabis and amphetamines were hours, days or weeks old.
Dr G.P. Solan, a pathologist, from Mayo General Hospital, said tMr Gaughan died from multiple injuries consistent with being run over by a vehicle.
He said the victim had been hit on the right thigh with tremendous force. It was his opinion that he had been lying on the ground when hit. If standing he would have been hit on both legs.
Earlier the inquest was told that Mr Gaughan, an unemployed plasterer, was killed by a hit-and-run driver between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on October 16th, 2001.
He had been dropped in a patrol car to the Halfway House, Islandeady, after one of his pals on a day's outing was arrested earlier in Westport and held in the local Garda station.
Mr Gaughan asked the gardaí to bring him home as he had no money but insisted that he be let out midway through the journey when he was still five miles from his home.
The gardaí said that although he had drink taken he was not drunk or under the influence of drugs. As he was not under arrest they had no option but to let him go.
All the gardaí said they believed Mr Gaughan was able to look after himself on the night and was not a danger to himself or others.
Mr Gaughan's "badly mutilated body" was found by a passing motorist at a spot 1.7 miles from where he had been dropped by the gardaí.
He had apparently been walking towards Castlebar when he was struck by a vehicle. Addressing the jury before they retired to consider their verdict, the coroner, Mr John O'Dwyer, recommended they return an open verdict. There were too many inconsistencies, uncertainties and gaps in the evidence, he stated.
After an hour the jury returned a unanimous open verdict.