'Significant arrests with international dimensions' in Cork machete murder probe
A comprehensive file is to be sent to the DPP following "significant arrests" in the the murder of a Polish father of two who was attacked by a gang wielding machetes at his house in Ballincollig, Co Cork.
Mikolaj Wilk (35) was murdered at his home in Maglin Bridge, Ballincollig, Co Cork on June 10, 2018.
A gang entered the house and killed him in the presence of his wife Elzbieta, who also sustained injuries. The couple's young children were also in the house. They were not injured.
Today at at Cork City Coroner's Court, Sgt Fergus Twomey, applied for an adjournment of the inquest in to Mr Wilk's death, telling Cork City Coroner, Philip Comyn that the investigation remained active following "significant arrests of national and international dimensions".
A "comprehensive file" is to be sent to the DPP. The inquest has been adjourned for mention on April 9, 2020.
Six people have been arrested and released without charge in connection with the death of the father of two.
Three people arrested last April were released without charge. Those arrested included two Irish people and a 29-year-old Latvian man.
The Irish nationals were a 35-year-old man man and a 33-year-old woman who were arrested on separate dates in Mayfield in Cork city. The Latvian man was arrested in the Blackpool area of Cork's northside.
On January 22 last two, Polish nationals and a Latvian, all in their thirties, were arrested in connection with the murder probe.
They were arrested at two separate locations in Ballincollig and Togher in Cork on suspicion of facilitating and supporting an organised crime gang whom gardaí suspect were behind the murder of Mr Wilk.
At the opening of the inquest late last year Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said that Mr Wilk died of haemorrhage and shock due to multiple blows with a sharp weapon in association with a traumatic brain injury.
A number of raids were carried out last summer as part of the Garda probe. Vehicles were also seized.
The Wilk family returned to Poland in the aftermath of the tragedy and the funeral ceremony for Mikolaj was conducted there.
Elzbieta required hospitalisation in Cork after the murder. She underwent surgery to her tendons at Cork University Hospital.
She was visited in hospital by then Bishop of Cork and Ross Dr John Buckley who extended his sympathy to her following her loss.
Members of the Polish community also held remembrance masses in the wake of the death. The couple had been based in Ireland for more than 10 years and were due to celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary.
Mr Wilk ran a gardening service in the area where he lived and was not known to the authorities.
More than €23,000 was raised for the family after a friend of Mrs Wilk's set up a Go Fund Me Page in the days following the murder.
The family appealed for privacy in the wake of the incident.
