Killer and sex attacker 'who lived a quiet life' after prison dies in house fire
A convicted killer who had been jailed twice for violent crimes against women has died in a house fire.
Conor Downey, 57, was pronounced dead after being found in his home in Cork, Ireland, following the blaze on Tuesday.
He was jailed at a Dublin court after breaking into a woman's Cork flat while she was asleep before sexually assaulting and beating her so badly that when she arrived at a nearby Garda station, officers thought she was "wearing a Halloween mask", reported CorkBeo.
The attack happened in 1988 but Downey was only arrested for it in 2001, when fingerprint evidence and advances in DNA technology led investigating Gardai to him. He was jailed in 2004 for 12 years but let out in 2011.
Downey had also been jailed in 1993 in London for the 1988 manslaughter of 26-year-old Donegal woman Suzanne Redden, with whom he had been sharing a house.
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Downey was jailed twice for crimes against women (Collins)The remains of Ms Redden were only discovered in 1992, after Downey himself went to police in Surrey and confessed to the crime.
Downey told police they had been having consensual sex but she had withdrawn her consent at one stage. During his confession, he told detectives that he then became angry and strangled her.
Downey gave information to the police which led to some of her body parts being recovered but the woman's torso was never found. His fingerprints were found on bags in which the dead woman's body parts were concealed.
He was jailed for just three years for the killing and after his release returned to Cork to live in the late 1990s.
Locals in the neighbourhood where Downey had been living told CorkBeo that he had kept a very low profile in the area, where he was most often seen doing the shopping for a family member who lived nearby.
One local told the outlet that some people in the area knew of Downey's violent criminal past and were very wary of him, but that "he lived a very quiet life" and seemed to spend most of his time caring for his sister. His parents are deceased.
They said: "There was a bit of fear when he first moved in, but he ended up being very quiet. You'd see him out and he was friendly, but he never went to the pubs or anything like that. He just kept to himself at home.
"His sister lived nearby and he would go out to help her with stuff but otherwise he'd only have popped to the shops or had a drink in his house."
Three units of Cork City Fire Brigade responded to the house fire near the junction of West Douglas Street and Galway's Lane on Tuesday afternoon.
The blaze broke out shortly before 3.15pm and Downey's body was found deceased on the ground floor of the home.
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The exact cause of the fire has yet to be established but the death is not believed to be suspicious. His body was removed to Cork University Hospital and an autopsy is expected to be carried out later today.
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