Canal body results 'within days'

Gareth O'Connor has been missing since May 2003

It will be at least two days before there is formal identification of a body found in a car in Newry Canal.

Detectives are working on the assumption that the remains are those of Armagh man Gareth O'Connor, 24, who has been missing since May 2003.

His car was pulled out of the canal on Saturday, but a post mortem examination on the body was inconclusive. Dental and DNA tests are being carried out.

Detectives believe Mr O'Connor was killed by the IRA. The IRA denied this.

Mr O'Connor went missing as he drove south to answer bail conditions in the Irish Republic.

Catholic priest Monsignor Denis Faul said the O'Connor family had been told by police that his life was in danger before he disappeared.

A car has been pulled from Newry Canal

The priest, who has campaigned on behalf of the families of murder victims whose bodies have not been recovered, said: "Four days before Gareth O'Connor disappeared the police gave the family a document.

"It was from some of the paramilitaries, it was the IRA, threatening his life.

"I suppose that was the foundation of their belief."

Police divers have returned to the stretch of canal where the car was retrieved.

Mr O'Connor's father Mark said he believed mainstream republicans were behind the killing.

"I'm sure it was the Provos (Provisional IRA)," he said.

He added: "They have his car and a body but they cannot say for definite that it was Gareth because the post-mortem was inconclusive."

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said if it was the missing man, it would be a major breakthrough.

Car examined

"It's one of the things we've been looking for two years. It certainly reinforces our commitment to bringing this case to a closure," he said on Sunday.

"It will be a very important line of inquiry. It may enable us to take the investigation to the next stage."

The blue Volkswagen Golf was discovered close to Victoria Lock near Newry after a two-day operation involving members of the PSNI's underwater search unit.

The car was taken away for further scientific examination.

The father-of-two was reported missing after he failed 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.

He had been charged with membership of the dissident republican Real IRA.

He was last spotted on closed-circuit television pictures driving through the County Armagh village of Newtownhamilton.