By Paul Healy

Copyright irishmirror

The father of a man who was killed and dumped in the Dublin mountains fears his murderer may never be caught.

Tragic father-of-one Kenneth Fetherston is believed to have been brutally stabbed to death on September 22, 2009 – before those responsible moved his body to the mountains. Visiting his son’s grave as he marks the 16th anniversary of his death, a devastated Brian Fetherston – who has been tirelessly campaigning for justice all these years, says he now fears the killer might get away with it. “Sadly you can get away with murder very easily in this country – and I think that’s very wrong,” Brian said in an exclusive interview with this paper.

“It’s Ken’s 16th anniversary and unfortunately we’ve heard nothing more or less since the last arrest that was made. That’s a good while back. There’s been no update apart from what the gardai have told us, that they have everything that they were looking for and they were putting the file together and it all has to be rewritten. But it just takes so much time.”

Last March cold case gardai from the Serious Crime Review Team made the significant step of arresting the chief suspect on suspicion of Kenneth’s murder. However the suspect was released without charge – and as far as Brian is aware, the file still has not yet been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

The heartbroken father said he is now losing hope at securing justice while he is still alive. “I am losing hope a little bit. I think eventually they will get there but I’m beginning to wonder if I will be around long enough to see them get there. I’m 71 now. I was 54 or something when this started. A hell of a lot has gone on in my life medically since this started and I’m finding it more difficult now to deal with it than I did back then,” Brian said.

“I’m looking at my grandchildren and three of them weren’t around at that stage. I have one of them going into secondary school now. Time is getting on and I’m not getting any fitter. I’m on the wrong end of the scale for playing the waiting game, as is his mother. Who’s going to be there to see this through to the bitter end?”

Brian has long believed that Ken, who had no involvement in crime, was killed after confronting a man known to him about money owed to him in business. The young father-of-one was due to take up Brian’s business and had vowed to his dad to cut ties with individuals who he believed had cheated him out of thousands of euros.

“Ken put everything he had into his business and he was getting nothing at all back from it. So he was going to take over my business which would have kept him completely and totally occupied.

“I had developed cancer at that stage and I said look it I won’t be able to do my job, if you want to take over here it is. I just needed time to get myself well again. He went missing on the 22nd which was a Tuesday, and he was taking over my business on the 24th. As far as I can make it out, that morning he got up and said I’m going down to them to sort this. I would say even if he only got a few hundred quid off them then he would’ve been happy. All he wanted was to take his daughter to Disneyland Florida.”

Brian, who says time is getting away from him, says securing justice for Ken in court would be the crowning achievement of his life.

“This is something that is constantly on my mind. I want to be around to see it through. That would be the greatest achievement of my life – to see this through and get the right result. This was just an ordinary young fella minding his own business and he’s murdered. We all know who did it. All the guards are doing from our perspective is kicking the ball to touch instead of just going for it. Now their hands are tied very tightly by the DPP.

“But we deserve a result, Ken deserves a result. He doesn’t deserve to be lying there in the cemetery. He had a life ahead of him which was savagely taken away from him. It’s not right in what we deem to be a civilised country that the likes of that can take place and there is no repercussions for it. Nobody has been held accountable in any way.”

The Garda Serious Crime Review Team took on Ken’s case in 2020 – and last year largely concluded the investigation, culminating in the arrest of the chief suspect. A file has since been prepared for the DPP, which will ultimately rule if there are to be any charges. As part of the new investigation, officers spoke to hundreds of witnesses – including Brian, who says the process has been gruelling.

“I know they have interviewed a massive amount of people. I know they’ve been back to people a couple of times. I was interviewed two and a half years ago. I was only out of hospital after major surgery and I went for an interview with them and was there all day with them. It was a very in-depth interview that we had with them and I’m quite sure anybody else they pulled in to have this second or third interview faced the same,” he said. “I know at that stage it took a hell of a lot out of me but I was determined. I was not going to be the one holding this up.”

Now the frustrated father says he fears that despite all the work that went into the re-investigation, the same result as the first investigation – where no one is charged, will be the final outcome. “I feel a bit let down at the moment. I’m sitting here this morning and I’m just thinking, Jesus, we really know no more from our perspective, we appear to be no further down the road than we were 16 years ago. I try to stay positive all the time but I’m getting to a stage now where I’m beginning to doubt. Am I fooling myself? Am I just hoping for the best? The frustration is what is really winding me up at this point in time. It’s very annoying.”

Speaking about marking another anniversary without his son he added: “It’s just another year. I’m not working today. I’m just sitting here looking at Ken’s photographs and thinking of him. There’s not a lot else I can do.”

Ken’s last known movements saw him attending a garage at Land’s Industrial Estate, in Knocklyon, Dublin, where he worked. His inquest in 2012 heard from garage owner William Smith, who told the Coroner’s Court that he had discussed money owed to Kenneth Fetherston with the deceased – but he was not in a position to pay.

Mr Smith denied that the debt had caused tension. Both he and his father Patrick Smith said they saw Kenneth leave the garage and that he was on his way to purchase brake pads for his car. Kenneth’s family reported him missing at 10pm the following night, having searched everywhere for him. Ken’s car was later found abandoned near Gorey, Co Wexford three days later – and some of his remains were found in the Dublin mountains several months later – on January 31, 2010.

Deputy State pathologist Dr Michael Curtis said Mr Fetherston was stabbed multiple times, with injuries evident in the skull and the neck. The original murder investigation saw five people arrested and released without charge. The DPP ultimately directed there was insufficient evidence to charge any of the suspects in that case.

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