Ten years on, new details emerge of threats to killed campaigner

Gardaí were notified by a third party of a potential threat to the life of environmental campaigner Michael McCoy in the months before he was killed in September 2016, Prime Time understands.

63-year-old Michael McCoy was found dead in woodland near his home in the Dublin mountains having suffered blunt force trauma to his head and face.

The information came to light during the programme's research for a report marking the tenth anniversary of his killing, and examining the circumstances of his death. Mr McCoy’s family was not aware of the threat until recent weeks.

Asked about the warning, An Garda Síochána said it does not comment on specific lines of enquiry that may or may not form part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

During a reexamination of his personal files for the Prime Time report, Mr McCoy’s family also found a handwritten note in which Michael recorded a separate death threat made three years before his killing.

They understand that Michael would have reported it at the time, but the note has since been provided to An Garda Síochána.

His widow Caitríona says the family are still waiting for justice, but are now hopeful new information could trigger further investigation.

"We would like justice for Mike, and we have waited 10 years," she told Prime Time.

His family believe his killing may have been linked to his campaigning on planning and environmental issues in the area.

Two men were arrested and questioned in connection with Mr McCoy’s death shortly after his body was found but were released without charge.

A file was subsequently sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). In 2017, an inquest heard that there was insufficient evidence for criminal prosecution.

Environmental campaigns

Caitríona says her husband was passionate about protecting the environment and conserving the beauty of the Dublin-Wicklow mountains where he lived with his family, just outside Brittas.

"Like any interests that he pursued, he just became driven by it and taken up with it," Caitríona said.

He regularly contacted gardaí and local authorities about activities he believed were damaging the area.

"Things like illegal dumping, illegal shooting, firing ranges, illegal quarrying, and people who came up to do rallying in the forest, which was unsafe in an environment where people will be out walking," his daughter Rachel said.

"He was just literally sending in observations about things that were happening to the relevant authorities," she added.

Michael also objected to planning applications for one-off houses and other developments in the area.

His campaigning put him at odds with some local people, and his family says he was subjected to threats and intimidation.

The McCoy family had moved to the area in the early 1990s. His daughter Suzanne recalls that before his death some people resented his involvement, viewing him as an outsider.

"You’re a blow-in, you don’t know what’s going on here, you’re messing it up for everybody," she said, describing the attitude he encountered.

At the time of his death, gardaí briefed journalists that they believed his murder was related to his "environmental campaigns". No link has been established publicly between his killing and any particular campaign.

Ian Lumley, heritage officer with An Taisce, worked alongside Michael on some of his campaigns.

"Back in the days when Michael was active campaigning, there was a massive uncontrolled illegal dumping situation in Wicklow," he said.

Michael also raised concerns about illegal quarrying, an activity which in some cases was supported by local businesses and people.

"He brought it to the attention of the council many times," his wife Caitríona said. She continued his campaign after his death. "I felt it was my duty to keep going with it and complete that particular thing, in his memory," she said.

In one case, which was later backed by South Dublin County Council (SDCC), a quarry was shut down.

One-off housing

Beyond quarrying and illegal dumping, Michael's objections to one-off housing also proved contentious.

Long-serving Wicklow councillor Gerry O’Neill, formerly of Sinn Féin and now an Independent, says Michael’s objections caused frustration locally.

"There was great hardship there on individuals, on young couples. All they wanted was a roof over their head, and that they could build their own house on their own land," Cllr O’Neill said.

"Wicklow is a tough area to get planning. Even when you would get your application over the line from Wicklow County Council, the serial objector would move in. Not only Michael. Other serial objectors would have annoyed people.

"People went to him [Michael] and appealed personally to him to withdraw the objections: people in desperate ways in some cases."

"Whatever happened to Michael, I hope it was never related to any of this," he added.

Ian Lumley of An Taisce said Michael was exercising his rights under planning law, given that the area was a specially protected area for nature conservation and the Wicklow uplands had a designation of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which meant that landscape views had to be maintained.

"The Dublin-Wicklow Mountains are an area of nationally significant landscape sensitivity and for nature conservation. One poorly located house can have an enormous impact over a wider area," he said.

One person who was impacted by Michael's approach was Ann Healy.

Michael had objected to Ann’s plans to build a new house for her daughter Ailis, a wheelchair user with high dependency and care needs, on land across the road from the family’s old farmhouse.

Ann said it was "soul destroying" when the proposal was challenged and met Michael in the hope he would reconsider.

"I thought that, by calling and introducing him to my daughter, that he would see that this was an exceptional case, but it didn't work out that way," she said.

Permission for the house was eventually granted on medical and social grounds. Ann said the completed home had transformed her daughter's independence.

Reflecting on the case, Caitríona McCoy says the council made the right decision, but believes her husband’s role was often misunderstood.

"An objection is just something they consider, and it makes them look at the case more thoroughly. That's the whole point of it. It's not to stop everything," she said.

Cases such as Healy's became flashpoints in the wider tensions surrounding Michael's campaigning. In May 2011, a group of residents organised a protest outside the McCoy family home, invoking the hardship of Ann's case and some others.

Independent councillor Gerry O'Neill, who attended, said there were "probably 40 or more people" present and a "certain amount of anger" among them.

Caitríona and Michael were both inside the house at the time.

"It was quite an unpleasant feeling to have people outside your house with placards and so on," Caitríona said.

Ann says that although the protest was partly held in her name, she did not agree with it taking place outside the family home.

"I wasn't comfortable about protesting at his home, considering he had a wife and family there, and it wasn't fair to them," she said.

Reflecting on Michael’s killing, Ann says no frustration over planning could ever justify the loss of his life.

"I don’t think it’s understandable that he should lose his life," she said. "You don’t go to those lengths no matter how frustrated you would be."

Threats

Michael’s family say he was subjected to various threats and intimidation in the years before his death.

In March 2013, three years before he was killed, Michael recorded a death threat on the back of an envelope.

His daughter Rachel remembers seeing it at the time.

"I came home one evening, and I saw something written on the back of an envelope. I was speaking to Dad about it, and I was like, Dad, 'they’re going to kill you,’" she said.

Caitríona recently found the envelope among Michael’s papers and has since given it to gardaí.

Alongside a time and date, Michael had written: "You’re getting personal now and we are going to kill you."

Caitríona says it was a record of someone calling to the family home and threatening him. Rachel says her father reported the threat to gardaí at the time.

"I don’t think he thought it was as dangerous as it was. I think he felt protected by the law," his daughter Suzanne said.

Years earlier, Michael had given a statement to gardaí about an alleged incident involving two people in a car while he was out walking.

He reported that one of the occupants asked: "How would you like to be knocked down by a car?"

Michael said the car was then driven at him, injuring his right hip and hand. He reported that the driver told him, "You’re getting off lightly today," and said they knew where he lived and would be at his house that night.

No one was charged in connection with the alleged assault following a direction from the DPP.

Prime Time understands that, in the year before Michael’s death, gardaí were notified by a third party of a separate potential threat to his life. Until recent weeks, his family were unaware of that warning.

Suzanne says her father often tried to protect the family from what he was experiencing.

"Our dad didn’t really want us to worry, he kind of minimised it," she said.

Michael may have also tried to reduce the focus on himself when he established the Dublin Mountain Conservation and Environment Group.

This allowed him to make complaints to the council under the group’s name, without his own name and address appearing on their public records. Although the family say people locally knew he was behind it.

The family say they also witnessed intimidation around their home. Caitríona recalls calls to the door and eggs being thrown at the house.

"There was also intimidation in that cars would drive up and down past our gate slowly, repeatedly," Rachel said.

Suzanne says cars would sometimes drive "in and out of the driveway".

"There was a kind of an implicit threat there," she said.

Michael's murder

Early on 29 September 2016, Michael set off to walk his two boxer dogs, Sophie and Fia, in Ballinascorney Woods, near the family home in the Dublin mountains.

Later that day, Caitríona and their daughter Suzanne returned home and, finding that Michael was not there, went looking for him.

"His car was parked outside the wood, so we knew he must be there with the dogs, and I just assumed he’d had an accident. We walked through the wood looking, and it was getting dark, so then we came home and rang the guards," Caitríona said.

Gardaí and local mountain rescue teams searched through the night. Michael’s body was found in the early hours of the following morning.

A post-mortem examination established that he had died from blunt force trauma to his head and face. His family say his injuries were so severe gardaí advised them not to see his body before he was buried.

Ten years on, retired detective Ken McGreevy, who has been involved in many similar investigations, believes the case should now be examined as a cold case review.

"This [case] seems to me to fulfil the requirements for a review from the Serious Crime Review Team," Mr McGreevy, who previously also served with the Criminal Assets Bureau, said.

"They have huge investigative techniques, and modern technology that may not have been available 10 years ago".

He added that relationships and allegiances can change over time, potentially making people more willing to come forward years after a murder.

"It doesn’t take a lot to make a cold case hot again," he said.

'Quiet support'

Caitríona says the family received considerable support from their neighbours after Michael’s death.

"I think everybody in the locality was shocked. We had a wonderful show of support from all our neighbours here and in the area," she said.

She says people thanked her for Michael’s efforts and told her they had quietly supported him.

But she believes he was often left to battle alone on issues and procedures where the local authority should have done more.

"It’s taking the stick for something that the council should really have got more involved in. Because he had to go it alone really, and that shouldn’t be," she said.

In a statement to Prime Time, SDCC said it is, "committed to maintaining the integrity of the planning system through the effective administration of its planning enforcement functions."

It said a complaint does not automatically lead to formal enforcement action and that each case must be considered on its merits.

"Where evidence indicates that unauthorised development may have occurred, the Council will take enforcement action as appropriate and proportionate to the circumstances of the case," it added.

An Taisce's Ian Lumley believes fear of intimidation remains an issue for people who want to raise concerns about local developments.

"We get contacted by a lot of people who are nervous about lodging complaints themselves, because the people involved in development are living locally. So, people are very nervous. And to be quite blunt, people tell us about intimidation," he said.

Continuing garda investigation

The gardaí say that they are continuing to investigate Michael McCoy’s death.

In a statement to Prime Time they said the "investigation is being led by a Senior Investigating Officer based out of an incident room established at Tallaght Garda Station.

"Gardaí continue to appeal to anyone with information, no matter how insignificant they think it may be, to come forward. All information received will be treated in the strictest confidence," it continued.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Tallaght Garda Station on 01666 6000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any garda station.

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A report about the death of Michael McCoy from Oonagh Smyth and producer/director Isabel Perceval, on the 29 October edition of Prime Time at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.