The body of a man who was charged with murder following the disappearance of three men in Cork in the 1990s has been discovered at his County Cork home.
44-year-old Fred Flannery was charged in 1995 with the murder of Denis Patrick O'Driscoll at Wellington Terrace in December of the previous year.
Denis (Patch) O'Driscoll was one of three men, including Englishman Kevin Ball and Wexfordman Cathal O'Brien, missing in the city for a number of months.
In June 1996 the murder charge against Flannery was dismissed in controversial circumstances in the Central Criminal Court when Mr Justice Barr ruled that gardaí had withheld vital case documents.
The judge said the investigating team had 'consistently and deliberately resorted to a policy, the objective of which was to deprive the accused of his constitutional right to a fair trial in accordance with the law'.
Several weeks later body parts belonging to Mr O'Driscoll turned up in a garden at Glanmire, but the bodies of the other two men have never been found.
The body of Mr Flannery was discovered this lunchtime.
Gardaí said they could not comment on the circumstances leading up to the discovery of the body.
All they would say is that foul play is not suspected and that the results of a post mortem examination on the body would be available later tonight.
