A 26-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a young Albanian woman resident in Ireland.
Following the unanimous verdict, the mother and sister of 23-year-old Lindita Kukaj wept as they recalled how much she loved Ireland and how she had hoped to make Sligo her home.
Pleading with the Judge to impose the maximum sentence on the accused, Lindita's mother told the Central Criminal Court she was afraid he would kill again when released from jail.
The jury took four hours and 13 minutes to return the guilty verdict on Eduart, also known as Ardi Kulici (26), with an address at The Maltings, Bonham Street, Dublin, who denied murdering Lindita at her home on Wolfe Tone Street, Sligo on February 22nd 2003.
Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed the mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Lindita Kukaj's heavily pregnant sister, Ms Shrepsa Hyseni, who addressed the court through an interpreter, said: "She worked day and night just to support us."
She said her sister had come to this country to make a better life and had loved her new home.
"She thought that her life would go on here, not that it would end here", added the young woman's sister.
The court heard that Lindita had worked as a waitress in bars and nightclubs and had also been an interpreter.
Ms Hyseni broke down as she recalled that the family could not take Lindita home for three weeks after the murder and could only briefly open the coffin.
Her sister had welcomed the accused, also an Albanian, "like a brother" when he came to visit her in Sligo, she added.
The jury heard that the accused had travelled to Sligo on February 21st 2003 to see Lindita with Mr Bashkim Osaj, a native of Kosovo, who was the chief prosecution witness.
Lindita showed the two men around Sligo and took them to Toffs nightclub that night.
Mr Osaj said that while Lindita was initially very happy to see them and to talk to Kulici about her family in Albania, the atmosphere changed later in the night when she and the defendant started to argue.
He became jealous when she hugged another man at the club.
A taxi driver also gave evidence of a row between Lindita and the accused.
Mr Osaj said that the accused spent the night in Lindita's bedroom while he slept in the sitting room. He claimed that the following morning Kulici woke him and said: "I killed the f . . . ing bitch".
Asked why, he said that she had been annoying him all night.
Lindita's mother, Ms Nexhmije Plorishti, said her daughter had come to Sligo so that she could help her family at home. She said Lindita had found great happiness here and had hoped one day to put down roots in the town.
"This man prevented her every happiness and desire", she added.
Speaking after the verdict Inspector James Kearins, who headed the murder investigation, said he was very pleased with the outcome "although I know it will not bring Lindita back".
During the nine-day trial, friends of the dead woman said Lindita had been a bubbly hard-working young woman.
"She was generous to a fault", said one flatmate.
After the case the convicted man's wife, a young woman in her twenties, was arrested by gardaí who confirmed she would be brought to Dublin before being deported.
