'They've got the wrong man,' says suspect rearrested over pensioner's murder

Irish Daily Mirror

a day ago

The suspect rearrested over the murder of a Tipperary pensioner today insists: 'they've got the wrong man.'
Gardai last week arrested former asylum seeker Hassan Ali Gori on suspicion of the murder of Josephine Ray (89), who they suspect was strangled to death in her bed at her home in St Joseph's Park in Nenagh, Co Tipperary on August 4 last year.
Hassan, who is originally from Chad and says he became an Irish citizen in 2017 and then lived with Josephine and her daughter Mary - who is his long-term girlfriend.
Last August both he and Mary were arrested in connection with the murder - and later identified themselves as the suspects in the case when approached by this paper on the streets of Nenagh. Last week investigators re-arrested Hassan, on the foot of new evidence - before releasing him without charge and sending a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Speaking today, Hassan insisted to this paper that he did not murder the well loved grandmother, and told of how gardai spoke to him about handprints. 'They show me something, they say something like eh print, a mark from the hands. "So I say to them this is a lady that does not take a shower. In five or six months she had not taken a shower,' he said.
He also spoke about handing over all of his clothing to detectives and said: 'I do not see any reason that anyone will charge me with murder. I did my best to tell them all that I know.
'I told you that I'm not the murderer. Definitely I was shocked (to be arrested again),' he added. 'They had a lot of questions not only about Josephine Ray. I spoke to them openly.'
Mary Ray, who has stood by Hassan throughout all of this, also told this paper of her shock at his re-arrest - and his insistence to her that he didn't kill her mother. The pair, who had been living in Josephine's home but have been unable to return since the murder, now find themselves residing in a tent just outside of Limerick.
'I was shocked, you know it's terrible. He says he's nothing to do with it. That's what he's telling me, like. They released him then again,' Mary told us. 'We were here in the tent and six guards came down from Nenagh and they said they were arresting him over my mother.'
Hassan went on to claim that he was repeatedly the victim of attacks by a number of individuals both before and after the murder of Ms Ray. 'Before everything, even when Josephine was alive I was being attacked. They're attacking me to kill me. They are coming in many waves but in the night,' he claimed.
Hassan claimed that the front door of the property was left open on the night of Ms Ray's death - and stated that he was asleep upstairs all night when the killing would have occurred. 'I told them (gardai) I know nothing. I slept that night. We were staying upstairs. Normally we only come down to make food and we go back upstairs. She (Josephine) didn't like much conversation in the dining room. So we have to go up. We are upstairs the whole time,' he said.
'I told them I know nothing. It's a false accusation against me. They've got the wrong man.' Stating that he became a legal Irish citizen in 2017, Hassan said he fled war in Chad, and moved in with Mary Ray - even though he wanted a place of his own.
'I'm a citizen. I was an asylum seeker before I became a citizen in 2017. There was a war going on that made me run for my life,' he said. 'They were supposed to give me my accommodation separately. I have to defend myself because I know people have been trying to murder me for a long time,' he went on to say.
The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
We asked Hassan about claims that he and Mary were fighting on the night of Josephine's murder - and that gardai were actually called to their home in the hours before her death. 'We did not have a fight. What kind of argument. Everyone knows how Mary is sometimes,' he said, adding that they had been together for many years.
'Several times garda be calling there. We are not the ones who called the guards,' he said, adding that 'nobody knows' why they were called. Asked if he was personally upset and grieving over the loss of Josephine, who he lived with he said: 'Of course I have to be upset. You have to be upset that you lose a person, of course. So what will I do?"
Asked how he reacted when it was discovered that Josephine was dead he told us: 'You know I'm not a small boy anymore now. What I had to do was tell Mary to call her sister. After then the police come and the ambulance was called."
Speaking on his claim that the front door of the home was left open that night he said:' I told them (gardai)…the door was unlocked. The main door of entering the building.'
Mary Ray had previously told us in August how it was her that made the horror discovery of her mother dead in her bed - though she claimed she did not realise at the time that she had been murdered.
'It was a surprise. I was very shocked. 'I found her that morning. I got up that morning and I was making tea. I went to check on my mother. I left her for a while because I thought she was asleep. The blanket was over her mouth and I thought she was sleeping.
'The next time I checked on her after a while and I said Jesus. I pulled the blanket back from her mouth and she was just not moving. I was nervous.
'I had said that's unusual, she's usually up and all that in the mornings.
'I asked her Josie do you want a tea and she wasn't answering me,' she said. Mary also denied any involvement in the murder of her mother. 'I told them (the gardai), they accused me, and I said I didn't do it.
'Why would I do that to my own mother? 'I couldn't do it like. I couldn't do a thing like that. I loved her,' she said.