Celine Conroy (26) was found in a pool of blood at the apartment she was sharing with her boyfriend Paul Hickey, and the couple's three young children, at Marina Oasis in San Fulgencio, Alicante, on 28 August last.

Conroy had been dead for several hours and had suffered severe head injuries to the extent that it initially appeared that she had been bludgeoned to death with an instrument.

Hickey (28) had to be restrained and sedated by Guardia Civil police after he violently resisted arrest. He is the son of Paul "Gash" Ainscough, who was a major heroin dealer in Dublin's north inner city, particularly in the 1980s and '90s. In 2001, gardai caught Ainscough with 87,000 in cash which they suspect he was using to buy heroin. The money was confiscated by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in lieu of taxes owed.

The Sunday Tribune has learned that the villa in which Hickey and Conroy were staying . . . which is owned by Ainscough . . . is being offered for sale for a price in the region of 300,000 to cover the costs of Hickey's legal representation in court, as well as the possible requirement for the posting of a large sum of money for bail at any future court hearing.

Conroy and Hickey lived with their three children at a flat in the run-down Sean Treacy complex in Dublin city centre, where many of the flats are rat-infested and uninhabitable due to damp. The couple were spending two months in the Spanish villa at the time Conroy was killed.

Hickey was remanded in custody accused of his girlfriend's murder at a preliminary hearing at Orihuela court in Alicante days after he was arrested by Guardia Civil police at the villa. The Sunday Tribune has also learned that Conroy's family are attempting to raise in the region of 10,000 to enable them to hire an English-speaking legal representative to attend at any future court proceedings in Spain in the hope that they may be in a position to object to bail being granted in the case.

As a foreign national without a permanent residence in Spain, it is thought unlikely that Hickey would be granted bail by a court in the region prior to the commencement of a trial. No date has as yet been set for a trial.

In media interviews after their daughter's murder, Conroy's parents, David and Sandra, said they had known Hickey since he was a child. He had started going out with Celine when they were both aged between 14 and 15 years old and they both later started taking heroin. The family had unsuccessfully attempted to convince their daughter to leave Hickey, but she did manage to get off heroin and enter a methadone programme.

The couple's three children, Shane (8), Chloe (5) and one-year-old Leah, are in the care of Celine Conroy's brother and his partner, who were allocated a house at O'Casey Avenue in Summerhill by Dublin City Council which had earlier been earmarked to be given to Celine Conroy.

It is understood that no attempt has been made on behalf of Hickey's family to obtain access to the children.

Celine Conroy's mother Sandra, who was diagnosed with cancer soon after her daughter's murder, has also been allocated a house in the same estate and the children are understood to be in a stable environment and coping well in the aftermath of their mother's murder.