Radio phone-in lag shot dead
Link: BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Cell phone radio caller shot dead
Back in May 2007, a man by the name of John Daly made a phone call on his mobile to a popular Irish radio show. However, this wasn’t any ordinary call - as Daly was currently inside Portlaoise jail serving a nine-year stretch for armed robbery.
Understandably, his actions caused a little upset within the prison service - and led to the rather alarming discovery that quite a few prisoners had mobile phones in their cells (as we reported here). In fact, guards also apparently found plasma TVs and, rather concerningly, some budgies.
Anyway, back to the story. Daly was released from prison in September, and unfortunately was shot dead in the early hours of this morning whilst sitting in a taxi. Apart from phoning to add his 10p worth to the radio discussion about gangland violence, the fact he admitted on the show he was calling from jail - thus triggering the searches - wasn’t exactly the most popular thing to do.
And in an even more bizarre twist, the Grauniad reports that his death was foretold in that day’s paper: http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,,2197222,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=4
Now, as a cub reporter I remember somehow managing to do an obit on a well-known town football club supporter - then ended up sitting opposite him on a bus to a match. Given his healthy pallor I had to revisit my claim that he was a goner. What I, or any of my colleagues on various titles, never managed to do was predict a death. If this talent can be refined it might just keep newspapers alive for some years to come - just not some of their readership…
Posted by MarkW on October 23rd, 2007 at 12:46 pm.