The despairing father of an innocent teenager beaten to death with an axe says he has “lost confidence” in the 13-year-old cold case investigation into his son’s murder.
Gardai have so far failed to charge anyone in connection with the killing of father-of-two Jeffrey Hannan, 19, from Southill, Limerick on November 22, 2007.
Two years ago, Alan Hannan, the dead man’s father, sought a meeting with the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. He is still awaiting a response.
Speaking on The Late Late Show two weeks ago, Commissioner Harris said he carries with him the “awful” trauma of his own father’s killing “every day”.
RUC Superintendent Alwyn Harris was 51 when he was murdered in an IRA car bombing in 1989.
Commissioner Harris said he has “an empathy for those who have been the victims of serious crime, and spent a lot of my service overseeing murder investigations and I always thought that was our opportunity to give the person who was the victim their last voice”.
He added: “We in policing have an opportunity to give a victim, who might otherwise be silent, a voice, and actually an opportunity for justice.”
But Mr Hannan said: “The Commissioner says he is there for people who don’t have a voice but he’s declined to meet me.
“He has written to me through his secretary telling me he has received my correspondence. That’s no good to me.
“We want closure, we want somebody brought before a court and charged with Jeffrey’s murder. The gardai know who it is, I know, the whole of Limerick knows who did it and they’re walking the streets.”
Last November, Mr Hannan made a formal complaint to the Limerick City Coroner John McNamara that his son’s inquest had not yet been held.
It was initially opened and adjourned in 2008 because of the ongoing Garda investigation.
Mr Hannan said he received a letter from Mr McNamara stating he intends to list his son’s inquest for the next available sitting of the Coroner’s Court in 2021.
However, he added gardai “will be seeking to adjourn the inquest” because a peer review of the original murder investigation is still live.
The review of the 2007 probe is now nearly two years old and no new evidence has emerged.
Mr Hannan said: “I feel like I’m in limbo, the whole family are. I feel like I’m just being pawned off for months on end in the hope that I’ll just go away.
“I’m fighting for justice for Jeffrey for over 13 years and I won’t go away.”
In April 2014 he was contacted by a person claiming to be in possession of key information about the murder of his son.
In March 2017 the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions informed Mr Hannan that gardai “fully investigated” this information which led to the re-arrest and questioning of six people.
However, they added that “it was not possible to take the investigation further based upon the available evidence”.
The peer review of the murder probe was ordered in July 2019 and is continuing.
But according to Mr Hannan: “The dogs on the street know who did it and my family has to live with that every day”.
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