Two English friends who were killed when their motorcycles were involved in a crash on the M50 in Dublin this summer had to be formally identified by DNA samples due to the catastrophic nature of their injuries.
A preliminary hearing of the inquests into the deaths of Paul Ingram and Brian McFarlane at Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard forensic scientists had to match the DNA samples with relatives of the victims in order to confirm their identity. The two motorcyclists were killed when their Harley Davidson motorbikes accidentally collided with each other on the M50 on June 3 this year.
It is understood the two men were killed instantly when a truck travelling directly behind them was unable to avoid hitting the motorcyclists. A truck that was travelling directly behind the two friends is understood to have had no choice to avoid hitting them.
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Mr Ingram (59) from Moulton, Northamptonshire and Mr McFarlane (63) from Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire had been enjoying a motorcycling holiday around Ireland by touring and camping along the Wild Atlantic Way. In a statement, Gillian Lavelle of Forensic Science Ireland, concluded that a DNA sample taken from Mr Ingram’s sister, Sally Ann Monger, indicated they were 61 times more likely to be related than unrelated.
Dr Lavelle said this indicated “modest support” that they were related to each other. The forensic scientist said analysis of a DNA sample taken from Mr McFarlane’s son, Brian, suggested he was 400,000 times more likely to be a child of the victim than to be unrelated to him.
Detective Inspector Donncha Maguire applied for an adjournment of the inquest under Section 25 of the Coroners Act in order to allow gardai time to complete their investigation into the deaths of the two men. The coroner, Clare Keane, granted the application and adjourned the hearing until June 6, 2023 for mention.
Dr Keane said post-mortem results in the case of both men showed they had died from brain and multiple organ injuries. Gardai had to issue an appeal to members of the public not to share images of the aftermath of the collision last June after shocking footage of the crash scene was posted on social media within minutes of the fatal incident.
One relative of Mr Ingram said she had seen the images online before realising it was a member of her own family. The Irish motorcycling community paid tribute to the two victims by providing an escort for Mr Ingram’s coffin as it was repatriated to his family in England from Dublin Airport while also staging a guard of honour for a cremation service for Mr McFarlane in Dublin.
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