The fatal assault on a Croatian man in Dublin last year was “cowardly and grotesque” but not racially motivated, the murder trial at the Central Criminal Court heard today.
During the jury trial of the three men accused of the murder of Josip Strok at Grangeview Way in Clondalkin, the court heard from David Druzinec, Mr Strok’s childhood friend. Both had been working in Dublin, with Mr Strok working as a carpenter.
Mr Druzinec (29) told the trial that he and Mr Strok (31) had been drinking in Dublin city centre on the night that the assault happened. However, he insisted that he cannot remember his friend being beaten to death.
Mark Lee (44) of no fixed abode and Anthony Delappe (19) of Melrose Avenue, Clondalkin, have pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter of Mr Strok. Connor Rafferty (21) of Castlegrange Close, Clondalkin, has pleaded not guilty to Mr Strok’s murder.
The three men have all pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Mr Druzinec, at the same location on March 30th 2024. Mr Strok died four days later from blunt force injuries sustained in the attack.
Mr Druzinec on Wednesday told the trial that he recalled having a “strange feeling” that they were being followed after he and Mr Strok got off a bus near his home in Clondalkin, Dublin. He said he did not notice this immediately, but about halfway through the journey home with his friend.
The jury, made up of six men and six women, heard claims, made in Mr Druzinec’s victim impact statement, that a group of men on a Dublin Bus told the pair, who were conversing in Croatian, to “speak f*****g English” prior to the assault. In response, Mr Druzinec said he would “speak whatever language he wanted.” He claimed that Mr Strok had soon after “laughed sarcastically” at the group, which he believed “may have provoked” the attack.
Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC for the prosecution, told the murder trial jury on Tuesday that the men accused were aware of Mr Strok’s status as a foreign national, and that this status had “relevance” in the case.
Counsel for the accused argued that Mr Druzinec’s victim impact statement given to Gardaí, which included “specific detail” contradicted his account to the jury that he could remember very little about the night in question. Defence for the accused claimed that Mr Druzinec “wanted someone to pay” in the wake of the tragedy, and that he “made up a story to suggest” that he had been racially abused on the bus.
Mr Druzinec denied he had made anything up, and that when he spoke to Gardaí after the incident, he said what he believed to be true. Asked if he had “made up a story” to make Gardaí believe that he was racially abused and threatened, Mr Druzinec asked what his motive for doing so would be.
“Why would I make it up?” he asked.
Related to the fatal assault itself, the Croatian national said he remembered “getting hit with a bottle or something hard” before falling to the ground. He said he could not remember anything after that, including his friend being fatally assaulted.
Defence suggested that Mr Druzinec wanted to “deflect” from an assault on a teenage boy at a bus stop 15 to 20 minutes prior to the fatal incident – one that he said ultimately resulted in the fatal assault at Mr Strok. A teenage girl gave evidence to Gardaí, referenced in court, that she had been with the boy at the bus stop outside a Tesco in Clondalkin when she saw two men who were identified as Mr Strok and Mr Druzinec.
The court heard that they were smoking and drinking from brown bottles. One of the men asked the boy for a lighter however he told him he did not smoke.
Recalling that evidence, the court heard on Thursday that the men “wouldn’t leave him alone” and kept asking for a lighter “over and over.” The court heard evidence that he and the deceased, Mr Strok “started mocking” the boy and then physically assaulting him. The boy was “dragged out into the road” by both men, the girl said, and his clothes were torn.
During the assault, it is alleged that Mr Druzinec was the one who started the fight, but both men “repeatedly punched and kicked” the teenager while he was on the ground. The youngster “begged to be left alone,” telling the men that he was “only a child.” The trial heard that Mr Strok stopped, but his friend didn’t, and Mr Strok eventually “pulled him off” the boy.
Defence for the accused questioned how Mr Druzinec could recall other aspects of the evening, including being in Temple Bar, drinking five pints, and going to Tesco to “buy groceries” on the way home – but not the alleged assault on the boy at the bus stop or being escorted from a bar by Gardaí earlier in the evening.
The fatal altercation later that night was a direct result of the assault at the bus stop, the court heard from the defence, amid claims that Mr Druzinec was “trying to deflect” from that by claiming the attack was related to the two men being Croatian and speaking Croatian on the bus.
“I suggest you were assaulted because you assaulted a teenage boy at a bus stop 20 minutes or so prior over a cigarette lighter, and you wanted to suggest to the police that you had been followed, threatened, and assaulted, but this did not happen,” defence said.
The trial before Justice Mary Ellen Ring also heard of Gardaí being called earlier in the night when the two friends were drinking owing to an altercation.
The jury heard that there was an argument between the men and some others when they were drinking at a pub earlier in the night, and that Mr Druzinec had to be escorted by a doorman. The doormen restrained Mr Druzinec on the ground until three Gardai arrived – two male officers and a female officer. The court heard that a tourist had been “punched in the face” by Mr Druzinec and Gardaí insisted that he left the pub and did not return, or else he would be arrested.
Defence said that what happened to Mr Druzinec’s friend, Josip, who lost his life, was “cowardly and shameful,” but questioned how certain parts of the evening did not feature in his recollection – namely, the fight in the bar and the fight over a lighter.
“You did not mention Buskers [the pub where the assault happened] to the Gardaí at all,” Mr Druzinec was told under cross-examination.
Mr Druzinec, however, said that when he spoke to the Gardaí in the immediate wake of the incident, he was “mentally, not even there” and “was in shock.”
The murder trial continues before Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring at the Central Criminal Court.