A Polish man fatally injured when he fell into the basement outside a Dublin city centre hostel minutes after he was involved in an “altercation” could have been pushed, an inquest heard.
Dariusz Skalski (31) suffered severe head and spinal injuries after falling 3.5 metres to the basement floor at the entrance to the Celtic Hostel on Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin 1, on February 19th, 2005.
State pathologist professor Marie Cassidy told Dublin Coroner’s Court there was no evidence of violent assault but her postmortem could not exclude Mr Skalski being “pushed or deliberately thrown over” the basement railing.
The father of four came to Ireland in October 2004 to earn money to finish off his family home in Poland. He shared a room with three other men at the hostel.
Gardaí were called to a fight in progress outside the hostel at 11.05pm on February 19th and on arrival saw Mr Skalski on the ground in the basement being attended to by three other men.
The inquest heard, from the deposition of the hostel assistant manager read into the record, that an altercation between a number of drunk residents had broken out that night. At one point Mr Skalski head-butted another man after which he and several other men were locked out of the hostel.
The dead man’s brother-in-law Daniel Solecki’s deposition was also read in. He was looking out the window of his room and saw Mr Skalski and two other men pushing at the door of the hostel. The railing was to Mr Skalski's right.
He looked again a minute later and saw the two other men pushing each other down the steps onto the path and others coming to break up the fight.
Minutes later another resident came to his room to tell him that Mr Skalski was on the ground in the basement. He was taken to the Mater hospital where he died on May 23rd, 2005.
Prof Cassidy said Mr Skalski’s injuries were consistent with a heavy fall backwards. The railings would have come to Mr Skalski’s mid-thigh, below his centre of gravity, she said. A blood alcohol level taken when he went into hospital indicated he was intoxicated. He may have been “unsteady on his feet”, she told the inquest.
She said it “cannot be excluded from the post-mortem findings that he was pushed or deliberately thrown over the fence”.
Detective Inspector Francis Sweeney confirmed that gardaí treated the incident as a possible homicide, taking more than 150 statements and securing CCTV.
Gardaí travelled to Poland to interview a suspect in the presence of a local prosecutor in 2009. A file was submitted to the DPP who directed that no prosecution follow.
Gardaí believe that Mr Skalski fell from the steps rather than the street but haven’t been able to establish how this happened.
“We know that he was involved in an altercation prior to his demise but we do not know how his demise came about,” Mr Sweeney said, adding that “a large number of people interviewed at the scene were intoxicated” and “did not co-operate with the Garda investigation”.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said Mr Skalski's widow had indicated, via Interpol, she would be attending the inquest but she was not present. He adjourned the hearing to July 13th to allow time to contact the family again.