Man who died after attack had ‘stroke of luck’ at a casino, trial told

A man was found in a Dublin park beaten into a “very, very bad state” after having a “stroke of luck at a casino”, a murder trial has heard.

On Wednesday , the Central Criminal Court heard from a witness who discovered injured Romanian man Ioan Artene Bob (49) in a park in Tallaght when walking her dog and asked him if he had been attacked, in answer to which the deceased held up four fingers.

The Central Criminal Court is hearing the case of Feri Anghel (42) of no fixed abode, who denies the murder of Mr Bob on April 13, 2018. Mr Bob was found by a Polish woman on that morning in Sean Walsh Memorial Park, Tallaght, Dublin 24.

The barrister said the jury will hear evidence that after the attack on Mr Bob, someone used the deceased’s phone and bank card at locations in Dublin and Meath, and the prosecution say this person is Mr Anghel. The barrister said that Mr Bob had been found in the undergrowth of the park in a “very, very bad state” by a passer-by and that the cause of his death will be shown to be blunt force trauma.

In his opening speech to the jury, prosecution counsel Paul Greene SC said that Mr Bob had lived a transient life in Ireland and had slept in his car for a time but had a “stroke of luck” at a Dublin city centre casino, winning €2-3,000.

Mr Greene told the jury that the Romanian community in Dublin had “picked up on the win”, which occurred days before Mr Bob’s death. However, Mr Bob had sent a large portion of the money to Romania via a friend before his attack, said Mr Greene.

Mr Greene told the jury of eight men and four women that CCTV will show the accused and the deceased in an increasingly intoxicated state as both men travelled from Dublin city centre by Luas to Tallaght on the night in question.

He said that CCTV and mobile phone evidence will show the connection and movements between the two men on the night and that the jury will be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of Mr Anghel’s guilt.

Speaking through an interpreter, witness Marzana Jurzak told Mr Greene that she was out walking her dog before work in Sean Walsh Memorial Park at around 7.45am on Friday, April 13, 2018. She said she came across Mr Bob, who “looked like he was sleeping” near a line of trees before her dog barked and woke him up. She said Mr Bob looked like he had been beaten and that there was blood coming from his bruised face, though some of the blood seemed dry.

A tearful Ms Jurzak told the court that she asked Mr Bob in English and Polish if he was okay or if he had been attacked but “he [Mr Bob] just showed me four fingers”. The witness said that she saw Mr Bob trying to speak but that his face was swollen and she did not understand what he was saying. She added that several times she witnessed Mr Bob trying to stand up but he could not.

Ms Jurzak told defence counsel Padraig Dwyer SC that she regularly walked her dog in the park in the mornings as it was “too dangerous” to do so after dark. She told Mr Dwyer that Mr Bob’s “whole face” was bleeding and that she formed the impression that when Mr Bob held up four fingers he was trying to communicate that there were four attackers. “It was the first thing that came into my head, that four people attacked him,” she told Mr Dwyer.

She said a couple then arrived on the scene and helped her by ringing an ambulance. However, Mr Bob died from cardiac arrest due to his injuries at Tallaght Hospital later that day.

The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Paul Burns and a jury of four women and eight men.