Two men have been found guilty of the murder of Croatian national Josip Strok on a Dublin street last year.
At the Central Criminal Court on Thursday, Mark Lee (44) and Anthony Delappe (19) were found guilty by a majority verdict of 11–1 of the murder of Mr Strok (31).
Lee, of no fixed abode, and Delappe, of Melrose Avenue, Clondalkin had both pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Strok.
Connor Rafferty (21), of Castlegrange Close, Clondalkin, had pleaded not guilty to Mr Strok’s murder. The jury returned a not guilty verdict in respect of the murder charge against Rafferty.
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All three pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Mr Strok’s friend, David Druzinec (29), at the same location.
The jury heard that on March 30th, 2024, Lee was told of an alleged assault on a teenage boy at a bus stop near his home in Clondalkin and alerted the two other accused.
The prosecution said that Delappe and Lee then followed Mr Strok and Mr Druzinec and assaulted them in the street. Mr Strok died four days later from blunt force injuries sustained in the attack.
Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the jury that Lee had used his feet and fists to kick, stamp and punch Mr Strok.
Delappe, he said, had used “brutal” force in repeatedly striking Mr Strok with a hard plastic pickaxe handle. Rafferty, he said, joined in by striking Mr Strok three times with one half of a crutch after Mr Strok had stopped moving.
In his Garda interviews, Rafferty described giving Mr Strok two or three “light smacks on the back”.
Rafferty’s barrister, Bernard Condon SC, told the jury that in bringing a murder charge against his client, the prosecution was trying to fix the actions of the two co-accused onto the then 19-year-old. Mr Condon reminded the jury that in his garda interviews, Mr Rafferty said he didn’t mean to seriously injure anyone, apologised and said he was ashamed.
“Mr Rafferty is not a monster,” counsel said, “he is a young, gormless eejit.”
Mr Druzinec suffered bruising to his face and required stitches but made a full recovery. Mr Strok had suffered one particularly severe wound to the back of his head which caused fracturing of the skull and a catastrophic brain injury.
State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers would say the injury was probably caused by the fall backwards onto the ground. Mr Strok was pronounced dead in hospital four days after the attack.
Mr Ó Dúnlaing said in his closing speech Lee and Delappe had pursued their victims after hearing of the alleged assault on a local youth. Delappe and Lee knocked their two victims to the ground and CCTV footage showed Lee repeatedly kicking Mr Strok in the head, he said.
As Mr Strok tried to defend himself on the ground, Lee delivered a “series of punches” followed by another kick to the head. At the same time, Mr Ó Dúnlaing said, Delappe struck Mr Strok with the pickaxe handle. Mr Ó Dúnlaing described Delappe’s actions as “overarm strikes with brutal ferocity” using a hard weapon.
While Delappe was striking the deceased, Lee “stamps on him with his left foot”, Mr Ó Dúnlaing said. After the fourth strike with the bat, Mr Strok, who had been fighting back, stopped moving.
Mr Ó Dúnlaing also suggested that Lee revealed his possible motive for the murder two days later when gardai arrived at his home with a search warrant.
Lee told gardai it was “terrible the way the homeless are treated” while illegal immigrants “run amok”.
Lee also told gardai he had been “walking up and down” outside an asylum centre waiting on a “foreign c**t” over an attack on a child.
While Mr Ó Dúnlaing said communities have a right to protest over concerns regarding proper consultation and whether things are being done in the “right way”, but there was a difference between protest and vigilante violence.
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Mr Ó Dúnlaing reminded the jury that Mr Strok came to Ireland to work and contribute to society. “He clearly did not deserve what happened to him,” counsel said.
After the jury delivered their verdicts, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring told the six men and six women they were excused from jury duty for the next nine years.
She said the jury had performed “a hard job, a thankless job,” adding that she was grateful for their attendance in court over the last number of weeks of the trial.
Lee and Delappe were remanded in custody to November 17th next for sentencing.
Rafferty was remanded on bail to appear on the same date.
