A Ukrainian woman who fled her homeland because her mother could no longer endure Russian air raids has been remanded in continuing custody after she admitted knocking down a fellow Ukrainian just moments after they had parted company following a night out.
Kseniia Vasylenko (43), with an address at Cork Airport Hotel, was before Cork Circuit Criminal Court where she pleaded guilty to careless driving causing the death of Andrii Nesterov at Cork Airport on October 8th.
Det Garda Gary Brennan of Togher Garda station told the court that gardaí were alerted by staff at the Cork Airport Hotel at about 2.20am that morning after they received reports that a man had suffered a cardiac arrest in the hotel car park.
Ambulance personnel arrived on the scene and found a man, father of three Mr Nestorov (49), lying on the ground with injuries. He was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
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Gardaí recovered dash camera footage from the car which showed a man walking at the rear of the car at 2.09am. The car went into reverse six seconds later before lifting off the ground. Mr Nesterov was subsequently seen lying on the ground to the front of the car.
Det Garda Brennan said that Vasylenko was then seen on the video leaving the car and was next picked up by CCTV in the lobby of the Cork Airport Hotel – where she is staying in refugee accommodation. She alerted staff that there had been an incident, and requested that they call an ambulance.
Vasylenko went to her room where she was interviewed a short time later by gardaí, who took a cautioned statement from her. Just before 8am, she was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving causing the death of Mr Nesterov, who was also staying in the hotel.
During her first interview, Vasylenko denied that she was driving the car when it knocked Mr Nesterov down, but she later said she had no recollection of the incident as she had been intoxicated after a night socialising with the deceased man.
She was shown the dash cam footage from the car and said that she was in shock after what happened and could not remember if she had been driving. She accepted, however, that she had been driving the car when it knocked down and went over Mr Nesterov.
“I drove the car over him but I didn’t realise I had driven over – I thought I had gone over the pavement,” said Vasylenko, who expressed remorse over what happened to Mr Nesterov, who died from severe brain injuries along with blunt force trauma to the chest and haemothorax.
Defence counsel Jane Hyland SC said her client was deeply remorseful and hugely ashamed. She had expressed hope that some day Mr Nesterov’s family could forgive her for the devastation she had caused them when she put her foot on the accelerator and reversed into him behind the car.
“A considerable amount of drink had been consumed by my client on the night and she could not accept that she had driven over Mr Nesterov until she saw the dash cam footage,” said Ms Hyland.
Ms Hyland pleaded for leniency, pointing out that her client had worked with a local authority in her home city of Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine, assisting people fleeing the war until she herself was forced to flee Ukraine because her mother could no longer endure the Russian bombing raids.
She pointed out her client had no previous convictions of any kind while she was also doing well in prison, whereupon she submitted both a probation report and a report from the governor which Judge Helen Boyle said she wanted to read, so she adjourned the matter until May 1st for sentence.
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