Stephen’s death is one of a number of cases of unsolved killings of children to have occurred in Ireland in recent decades. Forty years before Stephen lost his life, a five-year-old boy—Tommy Powell—was found beaten to death in a disused graveyard at Camden Row, a street located between the old Meath Hospital and Wexford Street in Dublin city. Tommy lived with his family at Cuffe Street near St Stephen’s Green and had last been seen playing in the area on 20 June 1961. His body was found at the disused St Kevin’s Cemetery the following day. Despite extensive enquiries at the time Tommy’s killer was never caught.
Ten-year-old Bernadette Connolly was abducted and murdered in Co. Sligo on 17 April 1970. Bernadette was attacked while cycling her bike near her home on a Friday afternoon. Her body was found 112 days later hidden at a bog fifteen miles away on the Roscommon-Sligo border. One of most intensive murder enquiries was undertaken, but Bernadette’s abductor and killer was never identified. In recent years, her family have asked Garda authorities to conduct another review of this disturbing case.
And then there are the cases of two long-term missing children who vanished in this country in the most baffling of circumstances. Mary Boyle was just six years old, going on seven, when she vanished from Cashelard near Ballyshannon in Co. Donegal on the afternoon of Friday 18 March 1977. Mary’s case is one of the oldest missing persons cases which still remains open. Another case which continues to be actively pursued is that of Philip Cairns, who was 13 years old and had only recently started secondary school when he was abducted from the roadside while walking back to school in Rathfarnham in south Dublin on 23 October 1986. A massive investigation, which continues to this day, has so far failed to find Philip.
Each death or disappearance of a child has deep effects on the entire family. Every case is different, the circumstances of each are unique. One common thread is that while trying to come to terms with the unexplained loss of a child, parents must keep going for their other children. In time, those children take up the mantle to fight for justice. The failure to catch the people responsible for causing such pain, the failure to get answers, to get that justice, only adds to this terrible burden.
Back at the Hughes Connors home in Bawnlea, Liz tells me the family suffer Stephen’s loss every single day. “To the general public I just ask anyone with information, no matter how small, to come forward. If you heard anything or saw anything, even in the aftermath, please come forward. And please don’t assume that the Gardaí know something. If there’s a chance you have information, please come forward. Every day we are living this, and it is as bad now as it was when Stephen died. Every Christmas, birthday, anniversary.”
Stephen’s sister Kelly says some people must have information about the person responsible. “People must have been talking after it happened. People must know more. Don’t assume Gardaí know everything. They don’t. They need information.”
If Stephen was alive today he’d be an uncle. Kelly has a little boy—Cillian. Kelly is now in her early twenties and works as a hairdresser. Stephen’s brother Gerry is in his mid-teens and the two younger brothers who Stephen never got to meet—Johnathan and Jason—are eight and seven. If Stephen was alive today he’d be in his twenties. Who knows what he’d be working at. From the sounds of it, he could have become a full-time comedian, or maybe he’d be working with animals. Liz shows me an A4 sheet of paper with the heading ‘Fact File’ on which Stephen had recorded his favourite things. His favourite subject in school was PE, his favourite TV show was The Simpsons. He wrote that he had orange hair and blue eyes and was aged 12.
The year after Stephen was killed, a memorial stone was put up on the footpath outside the entrance to the disused driveway where an arsonist struck at Rossfield Avenue on 1 September 2001. The black marble heart-shaped memorial stone features gold lettering which reads: Erected In Memory Of Our Most Beautiful And Precious Son, Stephen Hughes Connors, Who Tragically Died Here On 1st September 2001, Aged 12 Years. From Your Loving Family. The bottom of the stone features the line ‘How Could I Have Protected You In This Crazy World’.
The memorial stone is a great comfort to Stephen’s family and is respected and watched over by the local community in Rossfield. Liz tells me she found it difficult at first going back to the Rossfield estate when they moved away in late 2001. “In the weeks and months after Stephen was killed I couldn’t go back. But I find that I can now, I think it’s because I have the memorial stone there. I still have friends and family in the area so we do go back, and we keep the stone clean and we lay flowers. Where the stone is, it will always be Stephen’s place. As long as that plaque is there Stephen will be remembered. It is so upsetting to think of what happened to Stephen at that location, but you can’t think like that. I’ve seen firemen stop at the stone and kneel at it. Strangers to the area all stop and look at the memorial.”
Tallaght is one of the largest urban areas in the country, with a population of over 100,000 people. Of the murders which have occurred in the area in recent decades, Gardaí have solved quite a number. These include the shooting of Joseph Cummins in the old village on St Stephen’s Day 2001 and the murder of a fifteen-year-old girl in Killinarden in 1988—the first case in which DNA evidence was used. Detectives have also shown a dogged determination to pursue criminal cases many years after a murder has occurred. This determination saw a murder charge being brought against a man from Belfast in 1997 for the murder of Garda Patrick Reynolds who was shot dead in Tallaght in 1982. The man was subsequently found not guilty of the charge by the Special Criminal Court.
There are also a number of murders in which no-one has ever faced trial. The double-murder of Catherine Brennan and Eddie McCabe on 24 November 1995 is one of those unsolved cases. Catherine had taken a lift with Eddie to the Primo garage near The Square Shopping Centre in the early hours of that Friday morning to buy cigarettes. The CCTV footage from the garage shows that Catherine bought cigarettes at 4.08 a.m. The murders occurred over a kilometre from the garage about 12 minutes later. Eddie was found shot dead on the ground at the back of his car on Cookstown Road. He had been shot twice. Catherine was found shot dead in the passenger seat. At least eight people, including two women, were later arrested and questioned about the murders, but no charges were brought. The murders of Catherine and Eddie left two families devastated. Catherine was a 29-year-old mother of two. Eddie was a 35-year-old father of four. The file on the case remains open at Tallaght Garda station.
The file on the killing of Stephen Hughes Connors is also kept safely at Tallaght station. The original video cassette which recorded the scene near the crime is part of that file. There are a number of officers still serving in Tallaght who worked on the original case. Other Gardaí more recent to the area know this is a crime which has devastated a community, and they share the same resolve to never let it rest. But while Gardaí say they remain determined to pursue the person responsible, they need information, they need people to talk.
As I chat with Stephen’s Dad Billy in their back garden in Bawnlea in Jobstown, one of his younger sons comes over to ask him to pump up a tyre on his bike. This is a busy house, a welcoming home. With one teenage boy and two younger boys still to rear, there are constant sounds of laughter and chatter. The family are well known in the area. Liz runs a crèche at the nearby Tallaght Leisure Centre. “Before this happened we were just like any other family,” says Liz. “Myself and Billy were both working to try and give our kids a better life. We were an ordinary family. The first five years after Stephen died I didn’t go out much. If I went for a walk I’d find the quickest way home. I found it difficult to talk to people. Everyone around knew Stephen and it is a comfort to have friends and neighbours supporting us. Everywhere you go there are memories. That was tough at first, but now I find it comforting.”
As the family show me more photos of Stephen, Liz smiles. “Stephen really really really loved life. He was so adventurous. He got his red hair from Billy’s side of the family. Our youngest
, Jason, is very like Stephen, the image of him. We talk to Johnathan and Jason a lot about Stephen, he is still part of our family and we tell them they have a big brother up in heaven. Gerry talks about Stephen all the time. Stephen’s death had a huge effect on both Gerry and Kelly.”
Gerry and Kelly and the rest of the family have set up a Facebook page to appeal for information about Stephen’s killer. It is a permanent and publicly accessible tribute to a young life taken in the most brutal of circumstances. The family urge people to please take the time to log on to www.facebook.com and go to the page link for the Support-the-justice-4-stephen-campaign.
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To mark the tenth anniversary of Stephen’s death, Gardaí in Tallaght issued a fresh appeal on 1 September 2011. The appeal reminded people that the unsolved killing had featured on a Crimeline programme and had been re-examined by cold-case detectives who had made an arrest in 2006. The appeal stated that a suspect, who is now in his fifties, was not prosecuted after a file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. “I am confident that there are people out there who know what happened that night, or who may have been confided in afterwards,” said Superintendent Eamon Dolan. Liz Hughes also took part in the appeal, and pleaded with anyone who knows what happened that night to contact Gardaí. “It would be a comfort to know what happened to Stephen, even after all these years,” she said. Anyone with information was urged to contact Tallaght Garda station, or the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.
In February 2012, Gardaí from Tallaght station arrested a 52-year-old man for questioning in connection with the case. The man was arrested on the northside of Dublin and held for a number of hours under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act before being released. The arrest came as a result of the ongoing investigation carried out by Tallaght-based detectives since the appeal for information was made on the tenth anniversary of Stephen’s killing.
The reward for information to help solve this killing is also still available. Contact Crimestoppers on 1800 25 00 25. Callers can keep their anonymity and still claim the reward if their information leads to the killer being brought to justice.
Liz tells me she thinks it is fear which has stopped people coming forward with information. She is urging people to find the courage to do the right thing. “Don’t be afraid anymore. It’s gone on too long.”
The establishment of the Garda Cold Case Unit came far too late for the case of Tommy Powell. The five-and-a-half-year-old boy was found beaten to death in a disused graveyard in Dublin’s south inner city on 21 June 1961. Tommy’s killer or killers were never identified and never brought to justice. Tommy met his death just a short walk from where the Cold Case Unit is based. At the back of Harcourt Street Garda complex lies Camden Street, and one of the side streets off this is Camden Row, which runs at the back of what is now Kevin Street DIT, close to the old Meath Hospital. Nestled off Camden Row is an old church ruin and graveyard. The last burial here was around the time of the Easter Rising in 1916. In June 1961 it was overgrown with grass and weeds, and a place where children from the local area would often play. Tommy Powell didn’t play there though, he had never been in the graveyard before he met his death there.
Tommy lived with his family in a flat at Cuffe Street just around the corner. He was a pupil at the national school on Clarendon Street and was a well-liked young boy. On the afternoon of Tuesday 20 June 1961 Tommy finished school as normal and was collected by his mother. They headed home and Tommy played outside with other children at Mercer House flats. But when his mother went to call him for tea he wasn’t there. She began looking around everywhere but there was no sign.
An 11-year-old girl later told Gardaí that she saw Tommy walking along Wexford Street towards Camden Street between 4.15 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. The girl knew Tommy and saw that he was walking alone near the De Luxe Cinema. The girl continued walking on and when she came to the junction of Kevin Street and Cuffe Street she looked back up the street but couldn’t see Tommy.
All that Tuesday night Tommy’s mother and father and neighbours searched for him. His father called into the Gardaí and reported Tommy missing. All Garda stations and the Central Detective Unit at Dublin Castle were alerted. At the time of Tommy’s disappearance Ireland was basking in positive international headlines. Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco were on a four-day official state visit, and Dublin was hosting the Congress of the Patrician Year, a Catholic event celebrating the fifteenth centenary of the death of St Patrick. Tens of thousands of people were on the streets of Dublin to greet the Papal Legate, Cardinal Agagianian.
Tommy’s body was found by two young men just before 1 p.m. the following day. The two had got over the wall of the disused graveyard and had walked into the church ruin, which was situated in a corner of the old cemetery. The two were looking at headstones in this area when they suddenly saw Tommy’s body at one end of the church ruin. Tommy lay partly covered with long grass. He had suffered a number of visible injuries to his head consistent with a sustained attack. The two men ran to Kevin Street Garda station where Garda Francis Mulderrig was on duty. He raced back with the youths to the cemetery and when he saw Tommy’s body he immediately sealed off the scene.
State Pathologist Dr Maurice Hickey found that Tommy died as a result of gross brain damage resulting from head injuries. A jury later certified that Tommy was murdered by a person or persons unknown on the night of 20 June 1961. A major criminal investigation was carried out at the time headed by detectives from Kevin Street. No clear motive was ever established for Tommy’s shocking death. He was fully clothed when his body was found.
Detectives searched the full cemetery, which measured almost 200 square feet. They found blood on the church wall close to where Tommy’s body was found, and they also found blood on surrounding grass. Gardaí quickly came to the conclusion that Tommy had been killed where his body was found. But they never found the person or persons responsible for the murder of this five-and-a-half-year-old boy. A number of children who would play in the old cemetery spoke with Gardaí but none had ever seen Tommy Powell playing there. Detectives considered the theory that Tommy had been enticed to the cemetery, perhaps by older children, and that a row had simply gone too far. A brick was found embedded in the ground under where Tommy’s body had been discovered. Perhaps he had struck his head on this stone while being attacked by someone or some people and those responsible had panicked and fled the scene. Officers considered how Tommy had actually got into the cemetery. The large iron gates were locked, but children often got over a six-foot-high wall at Liberty Lane. Tommy might well have willingly got over the cemetery wall, perhaps with other children. But no-one ever came forward to say they had been in Tommy’s company or had even seen him after he was sighted by the 11-year-old girl walking on nearby Wexford Street on the afternoon that he vanished.
Tommy’s murder caused huge concern not only in Dublin but right across the country. There was a real fear that the uncaptured child-killer would strike again. But no similar murder would ever occur. Whoever murdered Tommy Powell did not strike again, or certainly not in the same way. As neighbours continued to comfort Tommy’s family and do everything they could for them, the Garda investigation eventually ground to a halt and the case would never be solved.
Two months before Tommy Powell was murdered, another killing occurred in Dublin where the killer or killers would never be brought to justice. Sixty-eight-year-old bachelor Harry Cahill was working alone at the Iona Garage in Glasnevin in the early hours of Friday 7 April 1961 when he was struck on the head by someone in what was most likely an attempted robbery. The alarm was raised when someone called to the garage shortly before 3 a.m. and found Harry Cahill stumbling towards him, covered in blood. Mr Cahill was rushed to the Mater Hospital and Gardaí were first alerted when a reporter from the overnight desk at the Irish Press newspaper rang Mountjoy station looking for information about the incident. When Gardaí went to the Mater Hospital
they were told that when Harry Cahill had arrived by ambulance he had been conscious, but he was now semi-conscious and as well as being treated for his head injuries he was suffering from severe shock. Gardaí asked if they could speak with him but medical staff said they simply couldn’t allow it at that time. Harry Cahill soon fell unconscious and was moved to St Laurence’s Hospital for specialist treatment and an operation, but he never regained consciousness and he died on the Saturday night.
State Pathologist Dr Maurice Hickey found that Harry Cahill’s brain substance had been extensively torn and bruised on his left side, and the main brain was also extensively torn. Death was due to brain damage resulting from multiple blunt force injuries to the head. The pathologist declared that the injuries were not caused by a fall.
Gardaí examined the garage and found pools of blood. Sergeant Edward Geraghty and Garda Thomas Fahy were the first officers to enter the premises, which was sited close to the Royal Canal. They saw three pools of blood on the garage floor at the entrance to the office. There was blood on the woodwork surrounding the office door and it seemed that this general area was where Harry Cahill had been attacked. Although he had been conscious when he was first found, he had been unable to say what had happened to him. He did tell one of the medical staff that he had fallen, but it seems that this was an effect of the gross head injuries he had received in the course of an attack.
A large murder investigation was begun with detectives from right across Dublin drafted in to catch Harry Cahill’s killer or killers. One line of enquiry was that he might have fallen victim to a group of criminals from the Finglas area. It was suspected that particular criminals had been in the area in the early hours of that morning. Detectives had established that the garage takings had been removed by the person who had been on the shift before Harry Cahill and left at the home of the garage owner. This would have meant there was very little except the float left in the garage during the early hours. Was it possible that a thief or thieves had set upon Harry Cahill when they realised that there was very little money to be found on the premises? Ultimately that question would remain unanswered and Harry Cahill’s murderer would never be brought to justice. The Iona Garage is no longer there. A popular pub is now sited at the location where Harry Cahill began a fateful overnight workshift on 7 April 1961.
The Cold Case Files Page 16