Lord of the Dance
Patrick Halpin: Death of Irish student in London was not foul play
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Patrick Halpin: Death of Irish student in London was not foul play

TRAGIC Irish student Patrick Halpin died of head injuries consistent with a fall after being found on a roof in London's Leicester Square, police have confirmed.

Foul play was also ruled out as the cause of death ass results of a final post-mortem on the 18-year-old’s Galway man's body were made public. 

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said a post-mortem carried out last week concluded that Patrick died from head injuries.

His family will have to wait until next week, when an inquest into the death is due to take place, to discover how he sustained the trauma.

“As this is a non-suspicious inquiry it has now been forwarded to the coroner's services and an inquest will be held in due course," the Met spokesperson added.

The inquest will be held by Westminster Coroner’s Court at the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday, March 28.

The news comes as Patrick’s large Britain-based family prepares to mourn his memory at a special mass in Luton this Friday.

They will gather at the Bedfordshire town’s Sacred Heart Church at 8pm to coincide with a memorial service being put on by the Halpin family in their native Loughrea.

Patrick had come to London on a theatre trip with pals from Dublin City University on Tuesday, February 4, when the tragedy struck.

The drama-enthusiast began his stay in the city by seeing Matilda the musical with friends and then went to the Zoo Bar nightclub in Leicester Square. He was last seen shortly after midnight, when he told friends he was going to get food in a Burger King adjacent to the nightclub.

More than 40 hours later, on Thursday evening, his body was discovered on a roof along an alleyway behind the fast food restaurant.

The grim news came two hours after an “information mix-up” that led his family to be falsely informed that he had been located safe and well 27 miles away in Gatwick Airport. But just an hour later police discovered it was a false alarm, triggered by the group’s block booking, when they searched the plane without finding Patrick.

Patrick’s sister, Regina, described the day as “the longest day ever”.

“We don’t know how he got up on that roof or anything like that, we just know that’s where he was,” she added at the time.

“There are no words and that is just it.”