Throat slit from ear to ear and his half-naked body dumped on his bed, he died as he had lived: on his own, friendless and in unsavoury circumstances.

Though nobody should die that way, few who knew Vincent Plunkett were surprised that his life should end in such violent circumstances. During a chequered life, he had courted notoriety, not least in his native Athlone where he received a conviction for stalking and where he won his reputation as a hate figure.

As a traffic warden, he was despised, though it was an equal opportunities kind of hatred, so keen was he to hand out tickets to gardai, Dail deputies, ordinary members of the public and even the local judge.

Born into a well-respected business family in Athlone, Plunkett was the son of a publican called OJ, who ran the family pub in the shadow of the town's historic castle.

Plunkett himself worked for 30 years as transport manager for local firm Seafield Gentex before running a chip shop called The Hurricane for four years.

After that he took up the reins as the local traffic warden in Athlone's pre-bypass days when it was one of the worst traffic blackspots in the country.

Taking pride in his job he said he knew that he was a hate figure in the town but boasted, "They can't get [someone] thick enough to replace me, " in an interview in the Athlone Observer in 1985.

"Nobody knows the number of accidents I've prevented or the amount of petrol I've saved the country since I took up my job."

Plunkett became embroiled in a feud with local gardai, who resented him issuing them with parking tickets, even though he was never a stranger to the courts himself.

He had convictions for assaulting a motorist and for drink driving, and he pursued a prosecution against a motorist who he claimed knocked him down.

An air of surprise spread across Athlone when Plunkett put his name into the hat for the 1985 local elections.

He polled 96 first preference votes and in the aftermath of the election he claimed: "The fact that I wasn't elected isn't my loss, it's Athlone's".

He remained in the town he thought he was serving well until 1998, when he was convicted of stalking a married couple . . . Michelle and Brian Mullins. Brian Mullins killed himself a few months later.

Plunkett was convicted at Athlone district court on a number of counts of harassing the couple. Brian Mullins (25) was on good terms with Plunkett at one point, but after a cooling in the friendship, Plunkett started stalking him in 1997. During the prolonged ordeal for the couple, Plunkett placed dog faeces in the family letterbox, spat at Michelle Mullins and followed the couple to the Aran Islands to harass them while they were on holiday.

Brian Mullins hanged himself at his home near Clonbrusk, Athlone shortly after the court hearing.

"After the court case I didn't care about him [Plunkett], " Michelle Mullins said last week. "I just want to forget about him and everything that happened and move on."

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune this weekend, her father Paddy Joyce said: "All of this happened so many years ago that we just want to put it behind us and try and get on with our lives."

Recalling the attitude in the town towards Plunkett, a local man said after his murder: "I remember when I was going to school in Athlone in the 1970s that he was known as a homosexual who had an open relationship with another man. At that stage he was basically a subject of ridicule and he was not terribly popular and he was always a bit of a loner."

Other locals described him as a "total loner without friends" who could be seen "hanging around street corners".

Members of Plunkett's extended family still living in Athlone told the Sunday Tribune that they did not wish to comment about him when contacted this weekend.

Questions have been raised since Vincent Plunkett's death about how such an unsavoury character, with a criminal past, could have secured such coveted accommodation at the sheltered flat in Robinson Court, off Cork Street in south inner-city Dublin. So far Dublin City Council has refused to offer an explanation.

"Each application for housing is assessed on its own merits and in strict confidence, " a spokeswoman said.

This weekend locals in the Robinson Court complex had plenty to say about their former neighbour.

"Nobody around here really knew him well", said one elderly lady. "He was one of these people that kept himself to himself and I rarely saw him."

Another man said: "He always seemed a bit weird as he would never talk to anyone. I think that people didn't like him because he was so unfriendly. It used to scare people a bit that he would not talk to any of his neighbours."

Local shopkeepers said he was always polite when he would call in to buy groceries but he would not engage in even the most innocuous of conversations.

He used to go for a drink in some of the local pubs on Meath Street but again he was seen as a loner.

"He would come in by himself and order a pint. He would just sit at the end of the bar drinking it on his own and would not talk to anyone, " said a barman in Bohan's pub.

"We were all shocked to hear everything that came out about him during the week as he seemed like a quiet, harmless man that would not bother anyone."

Nobody has been arrested in connection with the murder but gardai continue to investigate who beat Plunkett up as he lay in bed before they slashed his throat and left him to bleed to death.