An Irish man who killed an American woman in 2024 could have spent hours in bed with his victim after her death, a Hungarian court heard on Monday.
The Dublin man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously admitted to killing Mackenzie Michalski (31) in November 2024 during a sexual encounter and hiding her body.
The 38-year-old has pleaded not guilty at Budapest’s metropolitan court to murdering Michalski, insisting her death was the result of an accident during consensual sex. The accused has been in custody for 18 months after the courts repeatedly denied requests for temporary release under house arrest.
The court heard evidence from forensic medical experts, clinical psychiatrists and a clinical psychologist. This included findings regarding the man’s mental state and the injuries sustained by Michalski, whose relatives were present in the courtroom along with representatives of the US embassy.
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The court heard that Michalski, a nurse who came to Hungary as a tourist a few days before meeting the accused, was suffocated after the man strangled her for at least two to three minutes.
The forensic medical experts, who performed the autopsy, found several further injuries on the woman’s body, including signs of blunt-force trauma to the head, and scratch, scuff and bite marks on her torso, shoulders and hands.
During the accused’s mental evaluation, the clinical psychologist found signs of irritability, aggression and sexual aberration, the court heard.
The clinical psychiatrists said the man told them he had kissed Michalski’s dead body. They said he could have been in bed with the victim for up to four hours after her death but he had provided conflicting accounts about the length of time.
The accused also took photographs and video recordings before and after Michalski’s death.
The court heard that Michalski was involved in a car crash in 2013, which resulted in her having chronic neck pain and that this called into question the man’s claim that she asked him to choke her.
A lawyer for the accused again requested temporary release for his client with an electronic tag. The court heard his family was willing to put up €70,000 for bail, €20,000 more than at the last hearing. The judge will decide on that application in the coming weeks.
During the previous hearing, the accused said he was travelling around Europe and in the process of setting up an online business around the time of the alleged murder.
He arrived in Hungary less than a week before the incident and met Michalski at Szimpla Kert, a popular bar in Budapest frequented by tourists, on November 4th, 2024.
They had drinks at the bar and in a nightclub before going to the man’s apartment, where Michalski died in the early hours of November 5th.
The accused has said he did not take any drugs on the night, but admitted to drinking a substantial amount of alcohol.
Police previously alleged he attempted to cover up his crime by cleaning the rented apartment, and concealing Michalski’s body in a wardrobe before purchasing a suitcase to place her body in.
He then rented a car and drove to Lake Balaton, about 145km southwest of Budapest, where he is said to have disposed of the body in a wooded area outside the town of Szigliget, before returning to Budapest.
The accused was detained two days later after police reviewed CCTV footage of the area where Michalski was last seen. He later showed police where he had hidden the body and has been in custody since.
The trial will resume in June.
