Missing man 'may be dead'

IRA denied abducting Gareth O'Connor

An Armagh man who disappeared three weeks ago may have been abducted and murdered, the police have said.

Gareth O'Connor, 24, has not been seen since he left his home in Knockamel Park on 11 May to go to Dundalk, County Louth.

Police in Armagh said they were stepping up their investigation and a number of lines of inquiry were being followed.

Mr O'Connor's family accused the IRA of abducting him because of alleged links with dissident republicans.

However, the IRA said in a statement it knew nothing about Mr O'Connor's whereabouts.

Mr O'Connor had been due to report to Dundalk police station in the Irish Republic as part of his bail conditions on a charge of belonging to an illegal paramilitary group.

Detectives believe he took a route through Newtownhamilton, County Armagh.

Gareth O'Connor's father Mark said his son was always on his mobile phone and texting his family.

Speaking last week, he said: "The IRA say they know nothing - but they know everything," he said.

"For a man in a car to go missing in south Armagh is impossible without the IRA being involved in it.

"I don't understand why these people in the IRA movement cannot get word to us or tell us that anything is happening... that they haven't got him or that they have got him.

"He has no change of clothes, he has no money - he has nothing.

"He left his cashcard in the house and the garda (Irish police) have his passport - so as for absconding, it is absolutely ridiculous."