Family anguish over mystery death of doting grandfather

Published on Friday 31 October 2008 09:02

THE family of a doting grandfather found in the road with unexplained head injuries have spoken of their living nightmare since his death.

Army veteran Edward Dooley, 54, was found lying unconscious on the pavement close to the Ikea junction of the A 701 in Straiton by a taxi driver between 11.30pm and midnight on Saturday.

He was rushed to intensive care at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, but died on Monday.

A post-mortem revealed that he had suffered what police described as "an internal head injury", but they said they could not completely rule out suspicious circumstances and were treating the death as "unexplained".

Mr Dooley's son, James, 31, of Stockbridge, said: "My father was found with serious head injuries on the pavement and that's all we know.

"He was taken to accident and emergency, where they discovered a massive bleed on his brain. He was on a life support machine in intensive care but they told us he was brain dead and we had to turn off his life support machine on Monday.

"It's just been horrendous, it just seems like a nightmare, like something that you're going to wake up from."

The devoted family man, who lived in Myrtle Crescent, Bilston, had spent his last afternoon taking 10-year-old granddaughter Dannilee to see High School Musical at the cinema.

After dropping her off at her grandmother's house, he went to meet friends for a drink in a Newington pub and left telling them that he was going to take a bus home.

His daughter, Susan Dooley, 27, who lives in Lochend, said Dannilee and her sister Carlie-mae, 7, were struggling to cope with the loss.

"My daughters are distraught, especially the oldest one who spent the day with him," she said. "We'd just been on holiday with him in July near Newcastle and next year he was going to take them to Florida."

Mr Dooley served with the Royal Scots for six years, including spells in Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Turkey and Germany.

After leaving the army in 1976, he raised his family in Prestonfield, and worked as an engineer for Scottish Water for 28 years.

For the past three years, he had been on the security staff at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

"He was very hard working," said James. "He really enjoyed his job and he was very well thought of by his patients and by the staff. He was a very good grandfather, he doted on his grandchildren and on us, too."

Mr Dooley was divorced from wife Margaret, but they remained good friends and he visited her on a regular basis. James said: "We just want to ask anyone who's seen anything strange happening around in the Ikea area just to contact the police."

Detective Sergeant David Riddell, who is leading the inquiry from Dalkeith police station, said: "The circumstances are still unclear about how he died. He was not involved in a road accident and he didn't suffer an injury to the head from a blow or fall.

"He was found lying unconscious by the side of the road on Saturday night. A suspicious death is not being completely ruled out, but it's more unexplained.

"Anyone who thinks they may have seen him perhaps walking, hailing a taxi or getting off a bus should contact the police."