Man on trial for murder of housemate after row over poker game

A man has admitted killing his housemate following a row over a poker game at their Co Cavan home on New Year’s Eve.

The Central Criminal Court heard Tomasz Paszkiewicz (39) stabbed Marek Swider (40) with a knife he used in his job on the ‘kill floor’ in a meat plant.

Mr Paszkiewicz has pleaded not guilty to murdering fellow Polish man Mr Swider (40) at their home on Dublin Street, Ballyjamesduff on January 1st, 2018 but he has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Ken Fogarty SC, for the accused, made a series of admissions on his behalf including that he had invited the deceased outside following a row that erupted while they were playing poker.

When outside, he stabbed the deceased with a knife issued to him for his work at Liffey Meats in the town.

Seán Guerin SC, prosecuting, said the men had been working in Ireland for many years, and were sharing accommodation with another Polish man and a Latvian man. They were home for most of New Year’s Eve, and the accused and deceased were drinking and playing cards together.

“They were playing cards for money,” he said, explaining that the sums on the table were approaching €500.

“Mr Paszkiewicz’s luck was against him that day,” he said. “Some form of dispute occurred between them.”

Recover

He said a witness would tell the court that the accused had tried to recover the money he had lost, not by force, but had gone to take it.

“It does seem that Mr Paszkiewicz armed himself with a knife he had for work,” he said, explaining that this knife was being used as a kitchen knife.

“The card game appears to have been in the sitting room,” he noted. “The prosecution case will be that he went into the kitchen to get the knife, came back into the sitting room and invited Mr Swider outside.”

He said that the accused had stabbed Mr Swider twice, once in the chest and once in the abdomen.

“He never really stood a chance of recovering from the injuries,” he added.

He told the jury that the accused had dropped the knife at the scene and left straight away, walking to the neighbouring town of Virginia, where he got a bus to Dublin. He then spent days criss-crossing the country on buses before handing himself into gardaí in Cork.

“The thing the prosecution has to prove is the state of mind of Mr Paszkiewicz when he did the thing that caused the death,” Mr Guerin said. “What the prosecution has to prove is that he intended to kill or cause him serious injury.”

He said that it was for the jury to assess ‘the way he armed himself with the knife’ and what he said to the deceased, and whether such evidence showed what he had intended.

The trial continues.