Body of ‘Freaky Jesus' found in his own home

GARDAÍ have yet to officially identify the 70-year-old Englishman whose body was discovered in a rural and rudimentary home in Dunmanway recently.

The man has been named locally as Duncan Sloan – a native of Biggin Hill in London – who relocated to West Cork in the 1970s and became a familiar face at Dunmanway District Court where he was invariably charged with the possession and cultivation of cannabis.

Gardai said the man was deceased a number of weeks and that identification was proving difficult because his body was so badly decomposed. 

In the late 1990s, he was also sent to jail for a year after he was convicted of harassing a 15-year old schoolgirl whom, he claimed, had ‘halos’ around her head.

His appearance – his long, matted black hair and beard and intense stare – set him apart and in the tabloids he was often referred to as the ‘Freaky Jesus.’

It was on Saturday, November 26th that gardaí were alerted after a neighbour noticed that a mailbox at the end of a track – which led to the basic woodland house he lived in at Gortnamuckla, 4km north of Dunmanway – had not been emptied.

Gardaí carried out a preliminary investigation at the scene on Saturday and the body was removed to CUH where, the following morning, a post-mortem was carried out. The assistant state pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, confirmed that he had died from natural causes.

A neighbour reported seeing Duncan Sloan on November 13th last, but the gardaí have asked anyone with any information to contact them on their confidential line 1800 250025 or at Clonakilty Garda Station 023 8821577.