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‘House of Horrors’ killer found with €30k drug stash including heroin and cannabis in prison

Ciprian Grozavu is serving life for strangling a man and then dumping his trussed-up body into a river

Today at 20:41

A House of Horrors killer has been caught holding a massive stash of drugs in prison this week.

Ciprian Grozavu, who is serving life for strangling a man and then dumping his trussed-up body into a river, was found with the drugs at the Midlands Prison, according to Sunday Word sources.

Described as a “smorgasbord” of drugs, the cache included heroin, cannabis, white powder thought to be cocaine and over 100 tablets, it was added.

Sources believed the haul could be worth as much as €30,000 and that Grozavu was being used by inmates with gangland connections to store their drugs.

Drugs can change hands for up to three times the going rate as on the outside making the haul even more valuable to drug dealing gangs.

One man who was on the B3 landing and was connected to €3.9 million drugs seizure by gardaí in the Midlands is suspected to have been controlling the illicit operation.

He has since been transferred at a Dublin prison after Sunday’s drug seizure, according to sources.

Grozavu, a Romanian national, is serving time for his role in a double murder in which Cork woman Catherine O’Connor pleaded guilty to both murders in 2011.

The first victim John Forrester (42) was strangled and stabbed with a broken mug at Bridge House, Sean Hales Place, Bandon in O’Connor’s flat

O’Connor had been living with Mr Forrester in Bridge House for several months but she had moved in with Grozavu in the same building some weeks before the killing.

All three had been out drinking around Bandon on the day in question but when they returned to Mr Forrester’s flat shortly after 8pm, a row broke out when Mr Forrester told O’Connor he loved her.

Gardaí believe Grozavu looped some fabric around Mr Forrester’s neck to strangle him while O’Connor smashed a mug and started stabbing him in the face.

They then tied him up with TV cabling and threw his body over a railing .

The body landed on a walkway beside the Bandon river in the centre of the town so they had to go down to the walkway and throw the body into the river.

It was swept downstream where it was discovered three days later, it was heard in court.

The second victim Jonathan Duke (27) suffered the same fate in the “house of horrors” the day after Forrester had been killed.

The father-of-one, was visiting O’Connor and Grozavu in her flat when he became aware of what had happened.

At Grozavu’s trial for Duke’s murder a garda gave evidence how two witnesses in a first-floor apartment heard O’Connor outside their flat saying: “Just pull him, Chippy [Ciprian], he’s dead anyway.”

They saw O’Connor and Grozavu drop Mr Duke over the railings at the river – a 20-foot drop.

On their return to the upstairs apartment, the couple were heard “cheering and laughing”.

The two witnesses left their flat to find the door of the upstairs flat open and could see pools of blood.

They alerted gardaí who found Mr Duke’s bank card on the corridor floor and went upstairs to find “significant pools of blood” in the upstairs apartment.

The officers asked Grozavu what happened and were told that the blood was his while another officer discovered and identified the body of Mr Duke.

Mr Duke’s body was found with more than 100 separate injuries.

When gardai pulled Mr Duke’s body from the River Bandon, an electrical flex with the plug attached was wrapped around his neck.

Because Grozavu had pleaded not guilty to both murders he was tried separately to Catherine O’Connor.

He successfully had his convictions for Duke’s murder quashed and at a retrial was instead convicted of obstructing an investigation by dumping the body.

Ten years after the murder Grozavu was still fighting legal battles in court with his application for leave to appeal that conviction turned down just last year.