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David OLeary

Age: 31

Sex: male

Date: 1 Mar 2008

Place: Valley Road, Lydden, Margate, Kent

David OLeary was shot dead outside his home on his doorstep in Valley Road, Lydden, Margate in the early hours of Saturday 1 March 2008.

He had been out with his partner for the evening in Broadstairs and Margate and when he got home just before 2.45am he was shot by a person that had been waiting at his house.

He was shot in the neck and chest.

After shooting David OLeary, the gunman told his partner to lie on the ground but she ran away instead.

David OLeary died at the scene.

The lights to his house had been cut beforehand.

A man was later seen running off at 2.45am. The man was described as being about 5ft 6ins to 5ft 8ins tall with dark clothing and either very dark hair or a black bobble hat. He was said to have had a vacant look and a long, drawn and pale looking face. A witness said that it looked like the man had just had an electric shock and had been walking a bit hesitantly. It was also thought that he might have been wearing a dark coloured knitted skull cap that was too small for him.

A photofit of him was later released.

The police said that they were also keen to speak to a man that David OLeary had had an argument with in the DV8 nightclub in Marine Terrace, Margate, on 8 February 2008.

David OLeary had run a scaffolding business.

David OLeary's father said that he believed that David OLeary was shot in connection with a dispute over drugs and believed that a £10,000 contract had been put out on him by a person and that both he and the police knew who that person was but that there was not enough evidence to arrest him. He said that it was an open secret in Thanet that people knew who did it.

His father had run a second-hand shop in Northdown Road in Margate, the exterior walls of which were covered with posters showing newspaper articles detailing David OLeary's murder as well as a van similarly liveried.

David OLeary's father said that he was more interested in finding out who paid for David OLeary's murder rather than the gunman himself. However he later died from Covid in Thailand in 2022.

It appears that David OLeary's home in Valley Road has since been demolished and a new build put up on the plot of land.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see en.wikipedia.org

see Kent Online

see Kent Online 'Catch the assassin who shot my son'

see BBC

see Kent Live

see BBC

see The Isle of Thannet News

see The Isle of Thannet News

see Crime Share TV

see BBC