Inquest told of young man’s brutal murder

Coroner John Madden made his comments at the opening of the Inquest in Carndonagh on Friday.

Mr Allen, from The Top of the Hill, was murdered at his home in Links View Park in Lisfannon on February 9, 2012. Dissident organisation Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) later admitted responsibility.

Addressing Mr Allen’s relatives and the jury, Dr Madden said: “Andrew Allen, I believe, was only 24 and hadn’t reached his 25th birthday. His whole life was ahead of him and it was taken from him, but we can’t go into the details today.”

Expressing condolences, he said: “Nobody should have to go through this sort of trauma.

“We thought all this was behind us,” he added, warning that there were those who had still not moved away from such brutality.

He added that Andrew’s killing “should be utterly condemned”.

The jury had been sworn in earlier, but Dr Madden said that the state pathologist, Marie Cassidy, who had been in Carndonagh earlier in the day, had had to return to Dublin and would be unable to give evidence due to the ongoing Garda investigation into Mr Allen’s death.

However, the coroner added that certain identification evidence could be heard which would mean that it would enable the issuing of Mr Allen’s death certificate.