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In June 2021 Counter Terrorism International were contacted by Police in the UK seeking information on an individual, Mark Peppard/Nolan, who had been charged with terrorist offences, child grooming and assaulting a police officer.

A series of violent burglaries were carried out on multiple elderly victims between June and September 2023. In total 5 separate incidents were carried out. A common factor between all five incidents was the injured parties were elderly, infirm and service users of the same care agency. In one incident in September 2023 two suspects called to the house of an elderly person who was home at the time with a live-in home help, who was also elderly.

The body of pensioner, Ann Butler was discovered in a mutilated state five days after she had been beaten, stabbed and had her throat slit, while a large piece of cardboard was also found in the back of her mouth.

As part of the Serious Crime review process, the death of Nora Sheehan in 1981 in Cork was re-examined to assist in bringing a suspect to court, forty years after the event.

In the early hours of the 16th December 2018 a group of over 20 men went to a property in Falsk, Strokestown. This property had been the subject of an eviction earlier in the month and was being guarded by a number of security personnel, employed by the possessing bank.

John Forrester, a father of four, was killed following a jealous row with Ciprian Grozavu and Catherine O’Connor over his former girlfriend. John Forrester’s body was recovered from the River Bandon strangled, battered and bound. A cardigan belt was found wrapped around his feet. It was similar to the one missing from Catherine O’Connor’s cardigan.

The head and clothing of the deceased were discarded in separate plastic bags. A roll of black plastic bags was found in the bathroom of a property the suspect was living in and a second roll was recovered from the suspect’s work place.
These bags were examined to establish whether or not the bag containing the head and clothing came from the same roll as the bags recovered from the bathroom of the suspect’s house or workplace.
A comparison of the bags from the body and the clothes with those from the bathroom of the suspect found that they corresponded in relation to their physical appearance and their overall construction, including the heat seals, “extrusion” pattern and some small pigment flaws. These findings offered very strong support for the proposition that the bags came from the same roll found in the bathroom, rather than they did not come from this roll.
The bags from the suspect’s workplace were compared to the bags from the suspects bathroom and although there was some correspondence in the construction and physical appearance, the findings offered very strong support that the roll of bags from the bathroom of the suspect’s house did not come from the same manufacturing batch as the roll of bags from the workplace rather than they did.
A fingerprint matching the suspects’ was obtained from the plastic bag containing the clothing of the deceased.
A pair of bloodstained shoes discarded by the suspect were retrieved from a bin. The DNA profile of the bloodstaining matched that of the deceased.
The suspect who fled the jurisdiction was arrested on foot of a European Arrest Warrant.

Multiple evidence types help secure conviction of a suspect in Fatal hit and run of a Deliveroo employee.

Thiago Osorio Ferreira Cortes, a Deliveroo employee was cycling along Northwall Quay when he was hit by a vehicle and fatally injured. The vehicle fled the scene. A Ford Focus car was found abandoned with damage to the windscreen, roof and bodywork. It was technically examined to recover trace evidence to help determine if it was the offending vehicle. Thiago Cortes’ clothing was examined for damage, paint and glass. His clothing also provided source fibres that could be looked for in any recovered vehicle.

Dublin Fire Brigade were called to a house fire around dawn in 2020 and when entering the house they found the body of Alan Hall inside the front door. Mr Hall had suffered injuries in line with an assault. Attempts had been made to set the house on fire but fire retardant bedding prevented it from catching hold. This occurred during the strictest of the COVID lockdowns when socialising was not permitted and initially no suspects were identified. However, CCTV showed a taxi arriving at the house the previous night delivering takeaway drinks. Among many items recovered from the scene were a bottle of vodka and two bottles of mineral mixers. FSI scientists examined liquids and fire debris from
the scene and found one contained a light petroleum distillate matched a commercially available lighter fluid. An Garda Síochána were seeking an investigative lead and met with FSI Fingerprint and DNA scientists to focus the examinations on the drinks bottles and blood stained items. On one of the bottles of a lemon and lime mineral mixer, finger marks were recovered and identified to fingerprints of Conor Curran. This was the initial lead
in the case. Blood stained clothing had been recovered, discarded in the locality and DNA analysis established the clothing were worn by Conor Curran and the blood staining matched Alan Hall’s. In 2021, Conor Curran, was charged with the murder of Alan Hall, but in December 2022 he passed away minutes after playing a football match. A co-accused, Mr Derek Coady previously charged with the murder of Alan Hall pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of endangerment as well as arson at the Central Criminal Court.