A 29-YEAR-OLD man accused of murdering his lover’s husband told the Central Criminal Court in Tralee yesterday it was never his intention someone should die by his hand.
Michal Kurowski, of Old Gallows Field, Tralee, Co Kerry, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Michal Skotak outside Mr Skotak’s house at Racecourse Lawn, Tralee, on May 16th, 2009.
Speaking in English, Mr Kurowski said he was afraid for his own life and for the safety of his partner Anna Skotak and her child on the day of the incident.
Ms Skotak had come to pick up her child from a First Communion party hosted for the adopted child of her husband, whom she had left six weeks previously.
“It was not my intent to die someone from my hand, but at that moment I was worried about my life more than anyone else. I regret that someone had died,” he told the jury.
The court heard Mr Kurowski, whose 29th birthday was yesterday, was an electronics graduate who came to Ireland in September 2005 and immediately got work as a general operative at a fabric factory in Tralee. It was there, eight months before the incident, that he met Ms Skotak.
“First we were friends. After a while we fell in love,” he said.
They decided to set up home together, along with Ms Skotak’s two children from her marriage, in March 2009. However, Michal Skotak was very angry “first on Anna” but then “furious just on me”, Mr Kurowski said.
He had not wanted to go to St John’s parish church to the First Communion of Mr Skotak’s adopted child but had done so after Ms Skotak had telephoned to ask him to go.
When he drove Ms Skotak back to Racecourse Lawn to pick up her children, he parked out of sight of Mr Skotak’s house and remained in his car. He had become afraid of Mr Skotak, who had run a campaign against him in which he was attacked a number of times. He had bought a survival knife to protect himself from Mr Skotak’s people and carried it in his jacket.
He said on the day of the incident he had become caught in a headlock by Mr Skotak and, unable to free himself, he had pulled out the knife.
Cross-examined by prosecutor Paul Greene, Mr Kurowski said it was Mr Skotak who threw the first blow at him. “His hands were inside my car . . . I was afraid he would harm Anna . . . He hit me first. I wasn’t intending to hit him. I wanted to stop him by saying words like ‘stop it’.”
The jury is to begin its deliberations this morning.