The body of a serial sex offender from Donegal that was discovered at a caravan and camping park in Dublin two years ago had to be identified through DNA, an inquest has heard.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court into the death of Patrick Porter (46) of Grange, Inch Island, Burnfoot, Co Donegal heard his badly decomposed body was found in a van at the Camac Valley Caravan & Camping Park in Clondalkin, Dublin on July 27th 2022.
The coroner, Cróna Gallagher, was informed that a DNA sample from the body was matched with a sample taken from the deceased’s father, Reg Porter ,at his home in Co Donegal.
Dr Gallagher noted that a visual identity of the body had not been possible due to its advanced state of decomposition when it was discovered.
However, the coroner said she was satisfied that Reg Porter was the biological father of the deceased as a result of a forensic analysis which matched their DNA samples.
The site manager at Camac Valley, James Keogh, told the inquest on Monday that he had noticed a bad smell on a part of the site when he began work on the morning of July 27th 2022.
However, Mr Keogh said he believed at the time that the odour had been coming from litter bins, although he had also noticed flies around a white van parked under a tree.
He recalled how he was approached a short time later by some French tourists who also complained about a bad smell in the area.
Mr Keogh said he asked them if they had seen anyone near or in the van, but they had not.
The witness said he rang the phone number associated with the vehicle when it had checked into the caravan park a number of times and sensed something was wrong when he got no answer.
When he returned to the vehicle, Mr Keogh said a pile of rubbish fell out on the ground when he opened the back door before he noticed the decomposed body of a male under a duvet.
In reply to questions from the coroner, Mr Keogh said Mr Porter had stayed at Camac Valley a few times in his Volkswagen Caddy van that he parked in a spot on a communal grass area.
“He was in and out usually for 3-4 days at a time,” Mr Keogh recalled.
However, he was uncertain exactly when the deceased had last checked in or when he had last been seen by staff at Camac Valley.
Garda Erica Fleming said she was informed by a paramedic that Mr Porter had probably been dead for a number of weeks by the time his body was discovered.
Garda Fleming said the deceased, who had been lying fully-clothed on a mattress under a duvet, was formally pronounced dead at 11.55am on July 27th 2022.
The inquest heard the Caddy van had been traced to the deceased’s mother, Bridie Porter, who was its registered owner.
Although no direct reference was made to Mr Porter’s criminal background, Garda Fleming said, in reply to questions from the coroner, that he had had interactions with gardaí which were “not positive.”
She understood that the deceased, who was a welder by trade, had also been living intermittently in Co Donegal.
Garda Fleming said gardaí had been unable to establish when he had last been seen alive and also noted that he had “a bit of an estranged relationship” with his family.
She confirmed that gardaí had no concerns that there was anything suspicious in relation to Mr Porter’s death.
Garda Fleming observed that Garda files showed he had a history of drug use, alcohol addiction and mental health problems.
The inquest heard a postmortem had found traces of heroin, cocaine and some prescription drugs in the deceased’s body.
Dr Gallagher recorded the cause of death as multiple drug toxicity but noted that it had been impossible to determine the quantity of the various drugs in his body.
The coroner said chronic liver disease and scarring of the heart tissue detected in the autopsy on Mr Porter’s body were also contributory factors.
Based on the evidence, Dr Gallagher said there was no evidence that the deceased had intended to harm himself, and she returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
Offering condolences to Mr Porter’s family, who did not attend the inquest, the coroner said the death of a relatively young man who had become isolated was “very tragic.”
Porter, who had a series of convictions for lewd behaviour and other sex offences going back as far as 2011, had served prison sentences in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.
