During a family vacation at west Cork’s Cape Clear, a man tragically lost his life from severe cranial trauma after falling on rocks while attempting to fetch a football, as revealed at a recent inquiry. The unfortunate individual, David Latten, 44, was from Clonakilty and had travelled with his wife Neasa O’Keeffe and their children, Ruadhán who is 9, Odhran aged 7 and Finn who is 5, to spend a weekend at the Chleire Haven camping ground at the island, on the first weekend of July last year.
O’Keeffe, in her statement to the police, detailed how her spouse had been engaged in a game of football with their son Finn. When the ball was accidentally kicked over a fence and down the cliffs, Mr Latten intended to retrieve it. On his way, he passed by a shared yurt where his wife was charging her phone round 5 in the evening.
Ms. O’Keeffe started to grow anxious when he did not return and assumed he might have gone directly to the nearby North Harbour pizzeria where they were supposed to meet. Upon reaching the pizzeria and finding no sign of him, she headed back to the campsite. She soon alerted the campsite proprietor, Finbarr Hennessy, about her husband’s absence upon realising he was not there. Mr Hennessy drove her back to the pizzeria in case she had missed him along the route. With still no trace of Mr. Latten to be seen, emergency services were alerted once Ms. O’Keeffe reached back to the campsite.
The tragic news of Mr Latten’s disappearance reached the ears of John Kearney, an RNLI volunteer. He was at Cape Clear at the time and took his rigid inflatable boat out at the North Harbour. He recounted in a statement that he traversed towards the South Harbour and started a search, around 8.10 pm, he discovered a body face down in a cove. Mr Latten was retrieved and brought back to the North Harbour where he was officially pronounced dead sadly.
Coroner Frank O’Connell of West Cork shared a report by pathologist Dr Abdel Sadek detailing the injuries sustained by Mr Latten. These injuries included a severe cut to his left temple, damage to his skull, another wound on his left side, and a huge loss of blood from his left kidney. Dr Sadek’s post-mortem examination determined that Mr Latten’s death was caused by an intense head trauma exacerbated by severe blood loss from his kidney. The coroner ruled the death as an unfortunate accident caused by a fall.
Expressing his condolences to Ms O’Keeffe’s family, Coroner O’Connell characterised Mr Latten’s passing as an unfortunate incident with deeply tragic implications. Inspector Róisín O’Dea also offered heartfelt condolences on behalf of the Irish police force, An Garda Síochána.
Jim O’Keeffe, the father of Ms O’Keeffe and former Fine Gael TD of Cork South-West, expressed gratitude towards Coroner O’Connell for his compassion. He also shared the family’s appreciation for the police, the Coast Guard, the RNLI volunteers, and everyone on the island who contributed to the search for Mr Latten.