The scene of Dublin’s most recent murder was contaminated by a man who urinated right in front of Irish police, a court has been told.

A garda told a city court how officers had sealed off the home where drug dealer Sean Cloherty was shot dead last week.

The scene was “contaminated “ when drunk Glen Sheridan (29) urinated on the lawn.

Sheridan, from Whitestown Park Clonsilla, appeared on a charge of public drunkenness and urinating in public.

He apologised for his behaviour, saying that he “had to go”. Blanchardstown District Court heard that Sheridan (29) pulled down his trousers and urinated in front of gardai on the front lawn at Ashcroft Grove, Blakestown.

Four gardai were preserving the scene after the body of drug dealer Cloherty was discovered in the front downstairs living room of a house at that address.

Sheridan admitted public drunkenness and urinating in public on November 26.

Sergeant Damien Galligan said gardai were preserving a crime scene when Sheridan came along. He was drunk and was told to move away

He was also asked for his name and address but refused to give them to gardai. The sergeant said Sheridan then pulled down his trousers and urinated on the lawn at the front of the house.

Judge Aeneas McCarthy asked if Sheridan contaminated the scene.

Sgt Galligan said the incident occurred at the outer limits of the crime scene, but it was still part of the crime scene area.

Judge McCarthy fined Sheridan €120.

The murder investigation into the death of Sean Cloherty (27), the son of a deceased garda sergeant, is concentrating on his links with a number of drug gangs.

He had been arrested on three different occasions in possession of drugs, one cache in Balbriggan valued at €400,000.

Garda sources believe that he was under suspicion because of this, particularly because none of the seized drugs were his own .

Cloherty was shot dead in his home while his baby daughter slept upstairs.

His body was seen by a man who called to his home to buy a car from him last Tuesday night.

When no one answered the door of the house on Ashcroft Grove in Blakestown, Dublin, the man looked through the sitting room window and made the gruesome discovery. Mr Cloherty's partner and another child, who lived with him and his daughter, were out of the house at the time.