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The heartbroken partner of a father-of-two, who died following a brutal assault, has said she will never stop fighting for justice until his killer is behind bars.
Mark 'Yob' Loughlin (29), from Edenderry, Co. Offaly, died in Naas General Hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning last after he was found with severe injuries on the roadside in Allenwood, Co. Kildare.
Today, Deanna Gill, who has a nine-week-old daughter Aleigha and 18-month-old son Tadgh by Mark, slammed his killers saying they have robbed the couple's children of their father.
"The people who did this have taken the daddy of our two little babies away from them," Deanna told the Sunday World.
"My children will grow up without their father. And I won't rest until justice is got for them, for me and for Mark's family and friends."
Gardaà say the fatal attack on Mark, who was known to pals as 'Yob,' occurred hours after a collision between a Silver Audi A4 (registration number 09 CN 6292) and a Renault Trafic van in the Allenwood South area of Kildare at 12.45am on Sunday.
Officers from Robertstown arrived at the scene but the parties present declined to make a complaint.
The cars were seized for forensic analysis and gardaà left the area.
Three hours later, at 3.49am, gardaà received a further call about an assault and public order incident near the scene of the earlier crash.
When they arrived they discovered Mark unconscious on the road as another person appeared to be administering CPR.
Medical assistance was sought and Mark was taken by ambulance to Naas General Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Gardaà believe Mark, who was known to gardaà and had 59 previous convictions, was one of the parties involved in the earlier collision.
"It appears the deceased man had travelled out to the Allenwood area with a group in a vehicle and they were confronted by another group - who would regard themselves as rivals," a source told the Sunday World.
"We would estimate the total number involved in the confrontation at approximately 20 people.
"All of them have been or will be spoken to and then there is another 10 people who would also have knowledge of the events.
"There had been threats in the lead up to this event and the thinking would be that this meeting was to have been some kind of straightener.
"The most accurate way of describing this would be to say there was a significant outbreak of violence between two rival groups leading to the death of this man."
The source said gardaà are aware of a personal element to the dispute, involving a woman, between Mark Loughlin and one of the rival group - but said at the moment this is being looked at as having added 'fuel to the fire' rather than being the main reason behind what occurred.
"There were a number of dynamics, including this element, at play here," the source said, "and each will be examined in detail."
A heartbroken Deanna this week told the Sunday World she believes Mark had been doing his best to put his criminal convictions behind him at the time of his killing.
"Mark and I were together years," Deanna said. "But we only got our first home together in September.
"Mark really was trying to put that life behind him. And you couldn't have asked for a better father. He was brilliant with the children … all he ever wanted really was a family.
"So when he got out of prison in September and I'd sorted the house for us in Athy he was literally never happier. He was so family orientated and he was all about his friends … he'd do anything for anyone.
"Yes, he had his past but he wanted to be a good father and a good partner.
"We wanted our own home … and with him in prison it was really difficult to make that happen, but four days before he got out I moved in here.
"The two of us were delighted. We had Tadgh and I was pregnant with Aleigha and we had finally had our own home."
Deanna said the couple had their difficulties in recent weeks but they were working on these when she learnt from his aunt on Sunday morning that Mark had been killed.
"There are stories out there that Mark was lured somewhere over drugs," she continued.
"I don't believe that. As far as I know this was a personal dispute.
"The papers all week have made him out to be some kind of vicious gangster ... but you can take it from me and the people who knew him best he was far from it."
In February of last year Mark was jailed for ten months for head-butting a 16-year-old girl in Edenderry.
At the time, Tullamore District Court heard he had 59 convictions, including two for assault. But his barrister said the attack on the girl was a case of mistaken identity and that Mark suffered from addiction and alcohol issues.
"Mark was sick over that … utterly disgusted with himself and it was another part of why he wanted to move on from that life," Deanna told this newspaper.
Asked if she had any message for the person who killed Mark, Deanna said: "Justice will be got. I will not stop until he feels the pain that I do and that Mark's family and friends do. It's disgusting what they've done."
Gardaà are appealing for anyone with information on these incidents is asked to contact investigating gardaà at Naas Garda station on 045-884300, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
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