By: Michael O’FarrellÂ
Investigations Editor
THE case of dismembered drug dealer Christopher Gaffney – whose remains were found in Co. Meath last week – has once again highlighted a bizarre stand-off in which staff at three of the country’s busiest autopsy labs are refusing to work with a deputy State pathologist.
For three years now Dr Khalid Jaber – one of just three State pathologists – has been stopped from working in Dublin’s city morgue, Cork University Hospital and Our Lady’s Hospital Navan because staff have made complaints about him.
That means that every third week, when Dr Jaber is on duty, corpses must be relocated – sometimes by hundreds of miles – so he can carry out an autopsy.
Dr Jaber was on duty last week when Gaffney’s severed arm was found in woods near Clonee, Co. Meath. The body part was immediately dispatched to the mortuary at Navan but when gardaà realised that Dr Jaber was rostered for duty that week they sent the arm to Blanchardstown Hospital to let Dr Jaber perform his examination there. The rest of Gaffney’s body parts followed as they were discovered.
It is not known – and the Department of Justice is declining to specify – how often and how much it costs to relocate corpses.
But earlier this year the MoS identified the case of a suspicious death in which a woman’s body had to be moved from West Cork to Waterford Regional Hospital because of complaints about Dr Jaber from staff at Cork University Hospital.
The case, which occurred in April, cost an estimated €600 because an undertaker with a suitable vehicle had to be hired in Cork for the job. That bill was picked up by Cork County Council since, under the Coroner’s Act, local authorities pick up the costs of their local coroners.
Dr Jaber was appointed in 2010.
For years the Government had struggled to find someone to fill the role despite a package worth almost €200,000 per annum.
Dr Jaber insists he has done nothing wrong and it is understood he in turn has complained to the Department of Justice about the discipline, professionalism and attitudes of some mortuary technicians.
The Department of Justice has repeatedly declined to answer questions about the problem and will only say it is satisfied ‘that a professional and comprehensive forensic pathology service is being delivered’.
