Murder accused told gardaí he hit 'aggressor' with a stick to defend friend, court told
One of the two men who denies murder at a filling station in Fermoy said he was in no fight but intervened when his friend was being attacked and admitted hitting one of the men with a ‘stick’ once in the lower back and once in the shoulder.
This was what Marcin Skrzypezyk told gardaí who interviewed him, it emerged today.
Tomasz Wasowicz, 45, and Marcin Skrzypezyk, 31, are on trial charged with the murder of Ludovit Pasztor, 40, on February 21 2017 at the Amber filling station at Carrrignagroghera, Fermoy, Co Cork. Wasowicz also faces the additional charge of being in possession of a weapon, namely a stun-gun at the same date and place.
Justice Carmel Stewart and a jury of eight men and four women heard evidence of memos of interviews with Marcin Skrzypezyk.
At the end of the last interview Skrzypezyk said: “All I was doing was defending my friend. I did tell the truth from the beginning. I did not start this argument. I did not provoke this argument. I just wanted to protect my friend. I did not hit him to his head, it was on the shoulder area. I did not fight with anyone.”
Tom Creed senior counsel said the impression that came from the interviews with the accused was that his view was that Mariusz Osail, a friend of the deceased, was the main aggressor on the night and that Mr Osail was the man “leading the fight".
Skrzypezyk met fellow truck driver, Tomasz Wasowicz, at the truck stop that night and had met him no more than a couple of times before. The defendant said that he bought four beers at the supermarket – two each for himself and Wasowicz. They chatted about work.
He said they went “for a leak” and saw two men walking behind the fence who appeared to have had a lot of alcohol taken.
“They started saying something to us. A rough conversation started between Tomasz and the two men. He said to go away. They were angry with Tomasz. They went away,” Skrzypezyk told gardaí.
He said he and the other defendant went back into their own trucks but that the two men returned afterwards and called to his truck.
They started to ask where the smart guy was. One said it was not about me, it was about the other guy. A fight started. They both charged at Tomasz. I tried to say something like, ‘calm down’.
"I tried to separate them. One of them fell on the ground… He was unconscious. One of the aggressors called the ambulance,” he said.
In a later interview he said Tomasz Wasowicz said to the two men when they arrived at his truck to “Get the f*** out of here.” He said the two men said to Wasowicz: “You think you are so f***ing strong, so f***ing tough.”
“One of them had a kind of stick and he tried to hit Tomasz with the stick… They started to fight using fists, legs and sticks against Tomasz. I cannot say I grabbed a stick from the guy or from the ground. It was a really quick action and I cannot remember it now. All I am saying is that I was not fighting with anyone at that stage.
“Tomasz went down with hands over his head to protect himself. I have no marks. I was not participating in fighting. Tomasz asked for help. I tried to separate them. I hit one of the guys on the back and by the shoulder. His back was facing me,” Skrzypezyk told gardaí.
Asked how many times he struck the man, he replied: “Two times. Once softer, the second stronger.” Asked why he struck him stronger the second time he said, “He did not react to the first hit and did not stop hitting Tomasz.”
He said he hit him once in the lower back and once on the shoulders.
The trial goes into its eighth day at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork tomorrow.
