My son is dead my baby'

Mum's screams as she found murder victim, 34, in driveway

- SEAN MCCARTHAIGH

THE mother of a gangland murder victim has described the anguish of finding her son with fatal gunshot wounds in the driveway of her home five years ago.

An inquest into the death of Eric Fowler heard Therese Esmonde reacted to being informed that her son had been killed by screaming: "My son is dead. My baby.

Mr Fowler, 34, a father of two, died after being ambushed by one or more gunmen who shot him several times, including once in the head.

He was getting out of his car after arriving back at his family home in Blakestown Cottages, Coolmine, Dublin, on December 22, 2018.

A car which is believed to have been used as a getaway vehicle was found burnt out a short distance away at Rusheeney Green in Clonsilla.

Ms Esmonde told a sitting of Dublin District Coroner's Court yesterday she was in her home with her ex-husband, Stephen Fowler, at around 6.50pm when she heard "five pops".

She said her initial reaction was to think the sound was fireworks. Ms Esmonde recalled her ex-husband told her to stay in the house while he went to check on the noise.

She said she was in shock and "could not think straight" when he came back in and informed her their son had been shot and to ring an ambulance.

"My hand was shaking and I was screaming on the phone," said Ms Esmonde.

She described holding her son and thinking she could feel his heartbeat before realising it was her own.