A 37-YEAR-OLD motorist has been remanded on bail after he was yesterday charged with the manslaughter of a man who drowned when the car in which they were travelling left a cross-river ferry in Cork harbour last year.
Polish national Sebastian Loniewski with an address at Carrigbeg Apartments, Sunday’s Well, Cork, was arrested by gardaí yesterday morning and charged with the manslaughter of fellow Pole Krystian Mielnik (28) at the river Lee, Carrigaloe, Cobh, on March 8th, 2009.
Mr Loniewski was brought before Cobh District Court where Sgt Ray Coughlan gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution and told the court that Mr Loniewski replied after caution: “All I can is that I’m not guilty.”
Insp Anthony Pettit said gardaí were not objecting to bail once certain conditions were attached and Judge Michael Pattwell remanded Mr Loniewski on his own cash bail of €5,000 to appear in court again on May 26th.
Judge Pattwell made Mr Loniewski’s bail conditional upon him signing on every Wednesday at Togher Garda station in Cork city between 8am and 9pm, surrendering his passport and notifying gardaí of any change of address.
Last September an inquest into Mr Mielnik’s death heard that he was a passenger in a VW Polo driven by Mr Loniewski when the car left the ferry Carrigaloe midway between Glenbrook and Carrigaloe in Cork harbour at about 6.40pm on March 8th last.
Witness Robert O’Neill, who was skippering the ferry, told how he immediately put the vessel astern as it had driven over where the car had gone in and when the ferry pulled back, he saw two men on the surface of the water.
Mr O’Neill said the crew threw in lifebuoys and launched a life raft but there was a strong ebb tide and the men were carried downstream.
He saw a man in a boat rescue one of them but he lost sight of the second man and didn’t see him again.
Mr Loniewski, who was rescued by boatman John Geary, confirmed at the inquest that he was the driver of the car and that the man who was with him was Mr Mielnik whom he had known for a month or two since meeting him in Ireland.
Coroner for South Cork Frank O’Connell said that it was hugely regrettable that Mr Mielnik’s body had never been recovered but it was not surprising given the history of drownings in the harbour where many bodies have never been found.
He said that although Mr Mielnik’s body had not been found so no postmortem could ever be conducted, it seemed reasonable and fair and rational to assume that he had drowned and he said that a death certificate to that effect would be issued.
Last January, divers from the Haulbowline Naval base were carrying out a training exercise near where the car went off the ferry when they located the vehicle.
It was some 150 metres downstream from the ferry slipway and 40 metres into the channel at a depth of 11 metres.