The victim of a house fire in Cork yesterday afternoon has been named as 57-year old Conor Downey.
Downey was a convicted killer, who was also sentenced to 12 years in jail for the indecent assault and attempted rape of a woman in the city in 1988.
The cause of yesterday's fire is being investigated by gardaí, but it is believed to have started accidentally.
Downey had been living alone at the house in the Cork suburb of Douglas.
Neighbours saw smoke coming from the house at West Douglas Street and raised the alarm at 3.20pm yesterday afternoon.
It is understood that members of Cork City Fire Brigade had to force their way into the house.
They found Mr Downey's body in the living room. He was pronounced dead and was identified by dental records.
The fire was confined to the living room where it caused significant smoke damage.
The court was told that Downey had broken into the woman's home as she slept and he beat her so badly that gardaí thought she was wearing a horror mask.
He was linked to the attack on the woman more than a decade afterwards, when gardaí were gathering DNA samples as part of their investigation of the killing of another young woman in the city in 2000.
He was also convicted of assaulting the doctor who took the blood sample from him for the DNA analysis.
In 1993, Downey was jailed in London for killing 26-year old Suzanne Reddan from Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Downey had shared a house with her when she was reported missing in March 1988.
In 1992, he confessed to police in Surrey that he had strangled her. His information led to some of her limbs being discovered, but her torso was never found.
Downey returned to live in the the Cork suburb of Douglas in 2012.
At the time, the Irish Examiner reported "a sense of extreme anxiety" among people working and living in the area. The newspaper said there had been a text campaign urging people to warn others of his presence.
While Downey was on the register of sex offenders, it is understood he had not come to garda attention for a number of years.
