FERMOY MURDER: MAN CHARGED

A Macroom based truck driver has been remanded in custody after he was charged with the murder of a father of two who died after being struck with an iron bar during a row at a filling station in North Cork last year.

Marcin Skrzypezyk, a Polish national, was charged with the murder of Slovakian national Ludovit Pasztor (40) on February 21, 2017 at the Amber Petrol Station, Carrignagroghera, Fermoy when he appeared at Fermoy District Court last Friday.

Sgt Tony O’Flynn gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution, and told the court that Mr Skrzypezyk - formerly of Sleaveen Heights, Macroom – had nothing to say when the charge was put to him after caution.

Insp Tony O’Sullivan said that given that a bail application on a murder charge could only be made at the High Court, he was seeking a week long remand in custody for the accused to appear again at Fermoy District Court on July 13.

Judge Brian Sheridan granted the application and remanded Mr Skrzypezyk in custody to appear again on the date while he also granted an application by Mr Skrzpezyk’s solicitor, Daithi O Donnabhain, for free legal aid for his client.

Dressed in a blue t-shirt and jeans, Mr Skrzypezk, who had returned from Poland to Ireland to face the charge, was assisted by a Polish interpreter and spoke only to confirm his identity when asked so by Judge Sheridan.

Last year, Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster told an inquest into Mr Pastor’s death that he died from traumatic brain injury with subarachnoid and intra-cerebral contusional injury with raised intracranial pressure due to blunt force trauma to the head.

The inquest also heard evidence how Mr Pasztor, who lived with his wife, Andrea Koviacova, and two daughters, Andrea (15) and Eva (11) at Glencullen on the Duntaheen Road in Fermoy, was pronounced dead at the scene by local GP Dr George Treurnicht.

The late Mr Pasztor had come to Ireland in 2010 and had worked in Kepak Meats in Watergrasshill and later in Silver Pail Dairy in Fermoy but had left to become a full time carer for his wife who was seriously ill at the time of his death.

A Slovak citizen but an ethnic Hungarian by birth, Mr Pasztor (40) was buried at Kilcrumper New Cemetery in Fermoy following a mass at St Patrick’s Church in Fermoy attended by over 100 mourners who sympathised with his family on their loss.