Overview
- A woman in her 50s was found dead at a Church Street home in Portlaoise on Sunday after a reported assault and a man in his 70s was arrested at the scene and is detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act.
- Gardaí have preserved the Portlaoise scene, appointed a Senior Investigating Officer and established an incident room while the State Pathologist has been notified and a post-mortem will be arranged.
- Earlier the same day, an assault on Hawkins Street, Dublin 2 left a man in his 20s with serious injuries and he remains in critical condition at Beaumont Hospital.
- Investigators have publicly appealed for witnesses and any CCTV or dash-cam footage from Church Street between 11:00am and 1:00pm and from the Hawkins Street area between 12:00am and 12:30am on July 5, and have given contact details for Portlaoise and Pearse Street stations and the Garda Confidential Line.
- Police inquiries are ongoing and charging decisions will depend on the post-mortem and forensic results, while the Portlaoise community and the victim’s family have expressed shock and sorrow at the death.