Colm Fox investigation: Chief inspector admits he doesn’t understand suicide note over ‘major mistake’ in Regency murder investigation – Homepage

Sean McCarthaigh

A Garda chief inspector has said he still understands the contents of a suicide note left to him by a colleague in which he admitted he had made “a big mistake” in connection with a high-profile murder investigation and related criminal case.

Chief Inspector Brian Daly told an inquest into the death of Detective Inspector Colm Fox – who oversaw the investigation into a major gangland murder at the Regency Hotel in Whitehall, Dublin in February 2016 – that the contents of the note remained ‘cryptic’.

“I still have no idea what it’s about,” Supt Daly noted.

Det Supt Fox (56) was found dead in his office at Ballymun Garda Station on the evening of February 10, 2018.

The deceased was in charge of the Garda investigation into the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016 and the related trial taking place at the time of his death.

Patrick Hutch was accused of murdering Mr Byrne – a leading member of the Kinahan crime cartel – during a daring attack during a boxing weigh-in at the hotel by members of the rival Hutch gang. the two criminal organizations.

The trial at the Special Criminal Court subsequently collapsed due to the death of Det Supt Fox.

In the letter, the contents of which were first heard by Det Supt Fox’s family, the deceased said Supt Daly would read it because of a “drastic act” by him.

Det Supt Fox said there was an “act of negligence” in February 2016 by not following up on recognizing Mr Hutch as a suspect.

He said he intended to assign duties on that aspect of the case but completely forgot. Det Supt Fox continued: “I have made a huge mistake for which I will not blame anyone else. I have been under severe stress over the past week, which led to today’s event, which I truly regret.”

He explained that the error only became apparent during the trial due to “an innocent comment that got me thinking.”
Dept Supt Fox added: “My mistake may not be seen as a mistake by some and I couldn’t live with that.”

“I cannot change things now and as SIO (senior investigating officer) I take full responsibility,” he wrote.

Det Supt Fox noted that this could affect the outcome of the trial and for this he apologized in particular to the Byrne family.

However, he said there was no other aspect of the investigation that he had to worry about, or any other case in which he was involved.

In evidence, Supt Daly described how “nothing prepared me for the sight I witnessed” when he was alerted to his colleague’s death.

Supt Daly said he was deeply shocked when he read the contents of the note left in a sealed envelope addressed to him and marked ‘urgent’ on a desk in the deceased’s office.

He told the coroner, Myra Cullinane, that he had reread the letter in May 2018 and still could not understand its contents.

Supt Daly described having an hour-long conversation with Detective Constable Fox the day before his death, during which the deceased revealed he felt under a lot of pressure but asked the witness not to tell anyone else about it.

However, Supt Daly, who had offered to help Detective Fox with his workload, said his colleague did not elaborate on what he meant and never spoke about any aspect of the Regency investigation.

The witness said the deceased began talking about his childhood, including his Boy Scouts, and about his early years as a garda and his family.

He described Det Supt Fox as “a perfectionist and excellent colleague” but also a workaholic.

“Failure was not part of his vocabulary,” he added.

In response to questions from the coroner, Supt Daly said he believed Det Supt Fox felt he was a failure.

“He was a perfectionist in everything he did. He was a great ambassador for the guards,” he noted.

Det Supt Daly said his colleague did ‘everything by the book’. “That’s what he was like,” he noted.

On the second day of the inquest, Dublin Coroner’s Court also heard evidence that Det Supt Fox was in charge of 18 different investigations at the time of his death.

Several members of the deceased’s family had previously told the coroner that Detective Fox was under significant pressure at work in February 2018.

Detective Garda Paul Darley told the hearing on Tuesday that Detective Fox spoke to him over lunch in the station canteen on the day of his death about how London Metropolitan Police SIOs would have to oversee just four investigations in a 12-month period. but noted that he was in charge of 18 cases at the time.

The inquest’s cases included a double murder in Ballymun and an attempted murder of a Garda, as well as several shootings.

Det Garda Darley said he was under the impression Det Supt Fox seemed ‘fed up’.

He noted that there was no detective inspector in their Garda division at the time following the retirement of an officer in May 2017 and that “no support system was in place”.

Commenting to Det Supt Fox, Det Garda Darley said he could see “the color had gone from his face” in the weeks before the Regency trial.

As the weeks progressed, he said Det Supt Fox’s appearance became “sloppier”.

The witness also noted: “The whole environment we were working in was quite stressful.”

He also outlined how the deceased had commented to him in 2017: “I thought I had made a mistake, but I think I have solved it.”

Det Garda Darley said he did not know what the comment was about and described Det Supt Fox as “a very confident and even overly committed” officer.

“He was the first man to come in and the last man to come home,” he noted.

Det Garda Darley said Det Supt Fox appeared “in jovial form” and told him he had come early that morning because he wanted to go to a shooting range.

Later that afternoon, Det Garda Darley said he noticed the desk in Det Supt Fox’s office was tidy, which was unusual as it was normally littered with papers and files.

In retrospect, the witness noted that it “should have been a red flag.”
Another colleague, Garda Keith Taylor, said Det Supt Fox told him he was not really looking forward to the resumption of the Regency trial the following week when they spoke in the canteen on the day of his death.

He recalled that the deceased had made a comment about trying to do the right thing, but that ‘mistakes had been made’.

Garda Taylor said Det Supt Fox also discussed the difficulty of obtaining convictions in trials in Ireland and how defense legal teams would focus on conspiracy and collaboration.

However, he said Dept Supt Fox did not speak “despondently” and that “everything seemed normal.”

Garda Taylor, who had an office on the floor above Det Supt Fox, also described hearing ‘a brutal noise’ coming from the pipes in a radiator sometime between 4pm and 5.20pm, which sounded like ‘metal on metal’ being hit with extreme force touched.

Several other gardaí also gave evidence of their interactions with Det Supt Fox on the day of his death, as well as the discovery of his body in the adjacent toilet of his office at around 8.45pm.

A Smith & Wesson firearm that had been deregistered by Det Supt Fox earlier that day was found next to his body and he was formally pronounced dead by a doctor called to the scene at 10.15pm. Garda Stephen Enright, who discovered the victim, said a Det Supt Fox’s wife had called the station’s public office at 8.40pm as she could not contact him directly.

He told the inquest that he and another colleague agreed it was a strange call to receive.

Garda Enright said the lights in Det Supt Fox’s office came on automatically when he entered the room and he noted the desk was tidy before he decided to look in the bathroom.

He recalled blessing himself and saying a prayer after checking Det Supt Fox’s body and finding no heartbeat before informing other gardaí of the incident.

The investigation was suspended and will resume Wednesday morning.