Missing Irishman's friends criticise police after he was found in stairwell
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Version 0 of 1. Friends of a man found in a stairwell five days after he went missing have criticised the police investigation into his disappearance. A caretaker discovered a severely dehydrated Donal O'Sullivan in the emergency stairwell of a commercial building in Bondi Junction on Wednesday night. He had suffered serious head and neck injuries. He was about 100m from the last place he had previously been spotted on Saturday morning, the Tea Gardens hotel. The Sydney resident, originally from County Clare, Ireland, was reported missing by relatives on Sunday. A 100-strong search party of friends and relatives, lead by O'Sullivan's brother Johnnie, had been searching the area for him. A Facebook page called Find Donal O'Sullivan, set up to raise awareness of the 33-year-old's disappearance, attracted more than 2000 followers. One follower, under the name Joe O Donovan, criticised the police investigation in a post to the page: “It was not easy for the ordinary joe soaps trying to run a full on search mission. The system is a joke and needs review, could have been found sooner?” A family friend, Steven Gold, told News Corp Australia that the Irish community in Sydney had been responsible for most of the leads and the search party of friends and family had done most of the work. He questioned whether O'Sullivan could have been found earlier. O'Sullivan was taken to St Vincent's Hospital where he remains, reportedly in intensive care. Gold said O'Sullivan's family were “very, very happy” that he was found alive. Police believe the case may have been one of misadventure and are continuing their investigations. Gold said O'Sullivan's fall was not the result of a drug bender. |