1 Aug 2014

Ballyfermot, Dublin: Human Leg Discovered By Workers At Waste Recycling Plant: *UPDATED

*UPDATE: RELATED ARTICLE:
Human remains discovered at a depot in England may have got there after being thrown in with a recycling collection, police have said.
A police cordon remains in place at a recycling plant where the body parts were discovered yesterday.
Specialist officers are carrying out investigations at the site after Avon and Somerset Police were called to the plant in Avonmouth, Bristol, where workers made the discovery of male body parts yesterday morning.
The area was cordoned off and police have launched an investigation.
Police are now focusing their inquiries on Swindon after it is believed the body parts may have come from a recycling collection in the Wiltshire town, about 80km away along the M4.
Senior investigating officer Gareth Bevan, said: "Police enquiries so far suggest the body was transported with commercial recycling waste collected in Swindon and therefore the focus of the investigation will be in that area.
"The investigation is at an early stage and we are keeping an open mind about the circumstances leading to this man's death."
Police said they were called to the scene at around 11am yesterday.
Employees at the site were concerned at what they thought were remains at one of the units.
Officers cordoned the site off.
Police confirmed the remains are believed to be male, but that it was too early to say how long the body parts had been dismembered.
The victim has yet to be identified, police said.
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*UPDATE:  Gardaí were last night trying to identify which bin lorry carried the remains of the human body that was found at a recycling plant late on Thursday night.

It is part of a wider investigation which is trying to identify the person and establish whether the person died accidentally or at the hands of another person.
Detectives hope that, if they can pinpoint which lorry was carrying the person, they can follow its route and gather any CCTV from the various locations from which it picked up waste. 
This could capture images of the person who somehow ended up in a large wheelie bin.

Last February, a homeless man narrowly escaped death after falling asleep in a recycling bin which had been tipped into a rubbish compactor.
Last August, another homeless man, Henryk Piotrowski, died after a commercial wheelie bin he was in was emptied into a compactor and he was crushed to death.
The body of Mr Piotrowski, aged 43 and originally from Poland, was found when the contents of the truck were emptied at the Panda recycling facility in Ballymount, south Dublin.
The alarm was raised on Thursday night when staff at the Thornton Recycling Plant on Killeen Road in Ballyfermot, west Dublin, discovered a limb, believed to be part of a leg, while sorting rubbish at around 11.40pm.
Gardaí arrived and a doctor was called, who confirmed the remains were that of a human. The area was sealed off overnight pending a forensic examination and the arrival of the State pathologist.
A full search was conducted and a second body part, possibly part of a hip, was uncovered. A detailed Garda search continued throughout yesterday.
Deputy State pathologist Michael Curtis arrived yesterday morning and the parts were removed to Tallaght Hospital for examination.
Gardaí wanted to know whether the parts belonged to the same person, what was the gender and the race, as well as an approximate age. 
Garda sources said the parts could be the result of a tragic accident, possibly involving a homeless person who had ended up in a bin, or the result of something more sinister.
It was also considered that it could be the result of the misplacement of human remains following medical or pathology procedures.
Sources said investigators were “scratching their heads” at the gruesome discovery.
If the Garda team is able to establish which one of the bin lorries the body was carried in, it will aid their investigations, which will still take considerable time.
They will locate the various locations from where the lorry picked up waste and determine what, if any, camera footage is near those areas.
They will then try and secure the footage and go through the exhaustive and time-consuming process of viewing it.
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Body parts found overnight at a Dublin waste recycling plant are believed to be those of a woman.

The first gruesome discovery of a human leg was made by a shocked worker just before midnight at the Thorntons recycling plant on Killeen Road in Ballyfermot.

Gardai were called to the scene as soon as the discovery was made, along with a doctor who confirmed that the limb was human.

But gardai then discovered part of what is believed to be a pelvis and an arm while searching through mountains of rubbish this morning. Early indications are that the remains are that of a woman, sources said.

"It's early in the investigation, and the teams of gardai are working in very difficult conditions. But the early signs are that the remains are female," one source told the Herald.

"Gardai are looking at all avenues in this investigation."

Detectives remained at the site this morning as the search for more remains continued, and an investigation has been launched to try and identify the victim.

Bins

While gardai are keeping an open mind, one avenue being investigated is that the remains could be from a homeless person who may have been sleeping rough in a bin somewhere in the city.

There have been instances in the past where people who were in bins have been crushed in bin lorries, as well as occasions when homeless people have been rescued from the jaws of the mechanical crushers after being tipped into them while sleeping in bins.

In March this year Bray native Paco Hayes (45) cheated death when he woke up in a Greyhound bin lorry after being tipped into it from a large bin he was sleeping in at Hardwicke Street on the northside of the city.

In August last year the body of a man was found at a recycling plant operated by the Panda group in Ballymount, west Dublin.

Polish national Henryk Piotrowski (43), a father of two, was discovered after a bin lorry emptied its contents at the facility.

An autopsy showed that while Mr 
Piotrowski suffocated inside the lorry, he had suffered injuries to his face and head that were consistent with an assault.

Two men have since been charged in the case.

In February 2011 the arm of convicted rapist James Nolan (46) was found washed up on Dollymount Strand.

Gardai have not ruled out that the remains found last night could have been dumped in a bin following an assault or an attack.

A spokesperson for Thorntons did not want to comment, and gardai emphasised that the investigation is at an early stage.

Sources say the worker who found the limb and raised the alarm will be offered counselling.
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Gardaí are investigating the discovery of a human leg at a waste recycling plant in Dublin last night. The leg was found by a worker shortly after 11.30pm among waste material at Thornton’s plant on Killeen Road in Ballyfermot.
Gardaí were called to the scene when the discovery was made and the plant was shut down.
A doctor also attended the recycling plant and identified the limb as human.
A full search of the premises was carried out, a spokesman for An Garda Síochána said. Gardaí have not yet identified the source of the limb . www.garda.ie  
Thornton’s provides domestic waste collection and waste services for industries including construction, manufacturing and hospitality. It also handles waste from the healthcare industry including hospitals.
The company operates recycling and recovery facilities in Dublin, Meath and Kildare. Founded in 1979, it employs over 300 staff and operates a fleet of over 100 trucks.





Work at the plant was stopped and the equipment was shut down.
A doctor was called and confirmed the limb was human.
A thigh was subsequently found and a search of the plant is continuing.
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis is to examine the human remains.
A large section of the recycling centre has now been sealed off as gardaí carry out a forensic examination.
Gardaí are keeping an open mind on the discovery of the remains.
While it could be sinister, they say there is also a possibility that it could be misplaced medical waste.
Thornton’s have made no comment on the incident.

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