Woman charged with dangerous driving causing death of man found in Cork hotel carpark

A 43-year-old woman has been remanded in custody after she was charged in connection with the death of a father of three who was found in an unresponsive state lying in the car park of a Cork hotel at the weekend.

Kseniia Vasylenko with an address at Cork Airport Hotel was charged with dangerous driving causing the death of Andrii Nesterov at Cork Airport, Lehanaghmore, Cork on October 8th.

This afternoon at Cork District Court Det Garda Gary Brennan of Togher Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution in relation to Ms Vasylenko and told the court that the accused made no reply to the charge when he put to charge to her after caution following her arrest.

He said gardai were objecting to bail on the grounds of the seriousness of the charge, the strength of the evidence against Ms Vasylenko and the fear that she would flee the country if granted bail because of the likely penalty upon conviction, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in jail.

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He said that the state would allege that Ms Vasylenko drove Mr Nesterov’s Hyundai Alambra in a dangerous manner which led to Mr Nesterov being knocked down and fatally injured in the car park of the Cork Airport Hotel at 2.08am on the morning in question.

He said there was strong evidence to support the charge as they had seized Mr Nesterov’s car and it was fitted with a dash cam which captured the entire incident while Ms Vasylenko accepted at interview she was driving the car in a dangerous manner that led to Mr Nesterov’s death.

Det Gda Brennan said gardai feared that she would flee the jurisdiction as she had no ties here after coming to Ireland in December 2022 after fleeing war torn Ukraine with her five-year-old son to join her mother who had already come to Cork and was staying at the Cork Airport Hotel.

Ms Vasylenko took the stand and pledged that she would stand trial in Ireland and not seek to flee Ireland if granted bail, telling the court that she had come here to get her son away from the war in Ukraine after Russian missiles began hitting their city in central Ukraine.

“I understand that the police are afraid that I will flee here because I am not a resident of Ireland, but I will stay here and comply with all police checks – I promise I will not leave the country and will do everything that is asked of me,” she told her solicitor, Frank Buttimer.

She confirmed to Mr Buttimer that she would surrender her own passport and that of her five year old son while her 62-year-old mother would also surrender her passport as means of guaranteeing that they would not seek to leave Ireland if the court granted her bail.

“I am not a criminal person and I want to meet my responsibility,” said Ms Vasylenko, adding that she was not working in Ireland as she had to mind her son and had no money, save for the Jobseekers Allowance she was receiving, so she could not afford to leave the country.

Cross-examined by Sgt Pat Lyons, Ms Vasylenko agreed that her husband was back in Ukraine working in IT to restore computer systems in recapture territory but said that she did not want to bring her son back to a war-torn country while the conflict continues in her homeland.

“I do not want my son to spend all his time in a bomb shelter because missiles are not just being fired outside our city, they are being fired into our city,” said Ms Vasylenko, adding that she did not believe it would be possible for her to flee Ireland if she surrendered her passport.

Mr Buttimer said that his client, who had worked with the local authority in her native city in Central Ukraine, was a person of good character with no criminal record and she was willing to surrender her passport and sign on daily at Togher Garda Station if granted bail.

And he said that given the likely length of time it would take for the gardai to complete their investigation, complete a file and get directions back from the DPP, his client could spend up to a year in custody before the case was dealt with.

However, Judge Olann Kelleher said that he had to take into account the seriousness of the charge and the real garda fears that the accused might flee the jurisdiction, and, in those circumstances, he wasn’t satisfied to grant her bail and he remanded her in custody to appear again on October 16th

The deceased Mr Nesterov was a native of Kherson near the Black Sea and had come to Ireland some months ago as a refugee and was staying at the refugee centre at Cork Airport Hotel. He was working as a baker and was due to travel to Poland shortly to see his wife and three children.