A MURDER trial at the Central Criminal Court has heard a 27-year-old “model worker” received unsurvivable and catastrophic injuries in a fatal attack on his way to work in north Dublin.
A jury of nine men and three women was listening to the opening speech in the trial of three Dublin men charged with murdering Lukasz Rzeszutko.
Edward Byrne (21), of Cabra Park; Martin Morgan (20), of Tonlegee Road, Raheny; and Stephen Byrne (18), of St Donagh’s Road, Donaghmede, have all pleaded not guilty to his murder.
Aileen Donnelly SC, prosecuting, said Mr Rzeszutko died on October 4th, 2010, in Beaumont Hospital as a result of skull and brain injuries sustained two days earlier. Fractures to his skull, bruising and bleeding to his brain and injuries to his face were caused by blunt force trauma, she said.
“It’s the prosecution case that these injuries were inflicted on him by the accused in an assault on October 2nd, 2010, in Newtown Industrial Estate in Coolock,” she said.
“It’s the prosecution case that each of them participated in the assault and that each had the intention to kill or at least cause serious injury to Mr Rzeszutko,” she continued, saying this would make them guilty of murder.
Ms Donnelly explained that the victim had come from Poland to work here.
She said he was hard working and his employer at Kish Fish, Tadhg O’Meara, had viewed him as “a model worker”.
Mr Rzeszutko’s two brothers, she added, also worked in Kish Fish but worked different shifts from him.
The victim usually walked to and from work, and on the day he was attacked was due in to work early in the morning.
A colleague leaving the workplace at 4.30am that day drove out the gate of Kish Fish and saw a person lying on the ground, but did not recognise him.
“He got out of the car and thought this man was dead,” explained Ms Donnelly.
“Then he thought he heard a snore and rang an ambulance.” Mr O’Meara also came on the scene but also did not recognise the victim due to his injuries.
Mr Rzeszutko still had his bag on his back and had his mobile phone and wallet, and was soon identified as being Mr Rzeszutko.
Paramedics worked on him at the scene and he was rushed to Beaumont Hospital.
“He had brain tissue protruding from his nostrils,” Ms Donnelly said.
“The doctor treating him took the view that his injuries were unsurvivable.”
She said the prosecution would present evidence to the jury that would show the three accused and two teenage girls had been in the vicinity where Mr Rzeszutko was found. She said Edward Byrne and Stephen Byrne were not related, but Edward Byrne and Martin Morgan were cousins.
“It is the prosecution case that the three accused participated in this devastating assault leading to these catastrophic injuries, and intended to kill or seriously injure Mr Rzeszutko,” she concluded.
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy.