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Cage fighter and accomplice guilty of murder by beating man and leaving him to drown

The court heard that the victim had been walking to the gym when a car stopped beside him and two men got out.

A CAGE FIGHTER and another man have been found guilty of murdering a 23-year-old by beating him unconscious and leaving him to drown in the River Shannon.

Polish-born Patryk Krupa drowned in the Shannon outside Athlone while incapacitated with a head injury from a violent assault on June 20th, 2014.

Leszek Sychulec (34), a Polish cage fighter with an address at Drinan, Ballymahon, Co Longford, and Andrzej Gruchacz (35) with an address in Warsaw, Poland had pleaded not guilty to murdering Krupa at Bogganfin, Athlone, Co Roscommon.

Headbutted by men

The Central Criminal Court trial heard that Krupa had been walking to the gym with his two friends when a black BMW stopped beside them and two men got out.

One of these men headbutted one of Krupa’s friends and told them to ‘fuck off’. They moved away as instructed and Krupa disappeared down an alley with the men from the BMW.

The trial heard that the friends were concerned as they knew that Krupa owed some money to a man. They contacted Krupa’s pregnant girlfriend and the three of them searched Athlone for the friend and partner they knew as Paddy.

Found in the River Shannon

They were passing the spot on the Shannon where he used to fish and decided to stop there to look. They found the deceased floating face down in the Shannon. They tried to revive him but he couldn’t be saved and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The jury heard from a witness called Kuba Zmuda, who said that he had been instructed by the two men in the BMW to find Patryk Krupa. He said he was in the front passenger seat when the two men took their victim off Church Street in Athlone.

He said these men beat the victim in the back seat of the car as they were driven by another man to the banks of the Shannon. Zmuda said that Patryk Krupa was crying, “I pay”, as they continued to beat him there, before dragging him to the river.

The court heard that he was unconscious but alive when thrown in the water. Some of his bruising was consistent with his having been stamped on.

Arrests

Zmuda did not report the attack until he was arrested on suspicion of murder, telling the court that the men had threatened him. He knew only Sychulec’s first name, but gave descriptions of the two killers, as did Krupa’s friends.

When Sychulec was arrested the following day, Patryk Krupa’s DNA was found in blood on his watch and sock.

The eyewitness descriptions of the other man involved matched that of Gruchacz.

The jury was also satisfied that he was the man in passport photographs and a fake driving licence found in the car in which Sychulec was arrested. This put him with Sychulec that night.

‘Acting as a team’

The jury was also satisfied that both men could be seen together ‘acting as a team’ in CCTV footage captured in a shop in Athlone that night.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt had told the jury that it could reach alternative verdicts of manslaughter or assault against either accused. This direction came after Sychulec’s lawyer suggested that Krupa might have been alive and sitting on the river bank when his attackers left the scene.

However this would not have explained the photographs the jury saw of drag marks in gravel down the bank to the water’s edge.

The four women and eight men deliberated for five hours before reaching unanimous verdicts on all four counts.

Justice Hunt thanked them for their ‘excellent’ work, adjourned sentencing until 13 June when each man will receive the mandatory life sentence for murder.

Patryk Krupa’s family embraced each other afterwards. It’s expected that his mother will return to court to give her victim impact statement at the sentence hearing.

Read: Gang robbed men sitting in car on motorway>

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    Mute Bunny Johnson
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    Apr 28th 2022, 9:00 AM

    Justice that takes nearly 6 years is not justice nevermind fining an entity less than they spend on pencils.

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    Mute Tommy Roche
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    Apr 28th 2022, 10:43 AM

    @Bunny Johnson: Yea, should have fined them 23 million, not 23 thousand. Because it will come directly from the pockets of HSE management and not from the pockets of already hard pressed taxpa……oh, wait.

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    Mute Bunny Johnson
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    Apr 28th 2022, 11:15 AM

    @Tommy Roche: A judgement needs to be meaningful. If a fine is the method applicable then 10K is a meaningless amount, as always the legal teams received more than the fine! There needs to be proper repercussions and improvements not meaningless fines. Sack people.

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    Mute Allora
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    Apr 28th 2022, 12:01 PM

    @Tommy Roche: so let’s see lets not compensate people who are victims of state misgivings because taxpayers would carry the burden. Oh wait…. You are wrong not just on the point I’ve made here but on several economics fronts as well which tells me you dont know what taxpayers money does or how it works and also why this money is good for the economy going to a worker.

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    Mute Tommy Roche
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    Apr 28th 2022, 1:45 PM

    @Allora: I never mentioned compensation for victims wronged by the State. The article doesn’t mention compensation either. The money will not be good for the economy as it is a fine, not compensation, and as such will not be going to a worker. And maybe look up the word ‘misgivings’. I think you’ll find it doesn’t mean what you think it means.

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    Mute Allora
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    Apr 28th 2022, 6:22 PM

    @Tommy Roche: you are correct I should not have used misgivings in there. Shortcomings is what I meant to put there and my point stands. Yes I know the worker won’t get the money but still this fine is necessary. I was fined last week for parking illegally & will claim it as an expense. Its the same thing.

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    Apr 28th 2022, 10:37 AM

    What about the nurses who were injured? Were they compensated?

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    Mute Paul Fagan
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    Apr 28th 2022, 11:06 AM

    @Dave Harris: That would be a different state quango to the Health and Safety Authority. I assume the nurses lodged a claim with the PIAB within two years of the incident likely citing the HSE as respondents. Both parties likely accepted the PIAB assessment, hence the HSE admitting liability so this fine was only part of the cost.

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    Mute Shane McLoughlin
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    Apr 28th 2022, 1:41 PM

    So in other words the Government has basically fined itself? Or am I missing something?

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