A man is due to appear in court Monday morning charged in connection with the murder of a man in Limerick last week, writes David Raleigh.

Gerard Freyne, aged 53, died last Friday, two days after he was found by a passer-by lying on his back, on Lord Edward Street, Limerick.

He had sustained serious head injuries in what gardai believe was a one-punch assault.

Gardai launched a murder investigation after receiving the results of a post mortem on Mr Freyne’s body, but would not release the autopsy results for “operational reasons”.

Earlier on the day he was assaulted Mr Freyne was arrested by gardai for alleged public order offences.

A short time after his release from custody he was the victim of an assault an rushed to Cork University Hospital where he later died.

Twenty gardai have been drafted to work on the investigation and national garda units were aiding local officers.

Appealing for witnesses last Friday, Inspector Ronan McDonagh, Roxboro Road garda station, said: “My hope is that when this investigation is finished that there will be arrests made and hopefully the perpetrators brought to justice. I’m appealing to the city of Limerick to get us to that conclusion by coming forward.”

He said gardai were trawling through CCTV footage from several locations to trace the movements of a man seen leaving the scene around the time of the assault.

A member of the public found Mr Freyne and contacted ambulance control who then alerted gardai.

A man, aged 32, who was arrested on Saturday in connection with the fatal assault is to appear before Limerick District Court, Monday morning.