Age: 61
Sex: male
Date: 3 Jun 2002
Place: Cowley Road, Littlemore, Oxford
Joseph Byrne died from burns after a corrosive liquid was thrown over him.
He was thought to have been involved in an altercation on a grassy area on Cowley Road where it met Long Lane in Littlemore on 5 May 2002.
After the altercation, he was found by ambulance men at his flat in Herschel Court and taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and later taken to the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury where he died three weeks later. He died from a heart attack brought about by his injuries.
He had spent time living in the streets in Oxford but had recently moved into a flat in Herschel Court.
It was thought that the chemical thrown at him had been a type of corrosive alkaline solution, probably a household cleaning agent.
It was noted that vital evidence from the flat had gone missing after the landlord carried out renovations.
At the time, a 42-year old woman that had also lived in Herschel Court was arrested for his murder but released without charge.
