Badly beaten man found with severe bruising to eyes and face, murder trial hears

A man found severely beaten in a Dublin park had “racoon eyes” from severe bruising to his face, a paramedic has told a murder trial.

On Thursday , the Central Criminal Court heard from paramedics who attended to seriously injured Romanian man Ioan Artene Bob (49) in Sean Walsh Park before they brought him to Tallaght Hospital, where he later died.

The Central Criminal Court is hearing the case of Feri Anghel (42) of no fixed abode, who denies the murder of Bob on April 13th, 2018. Bob was found by Polish woman Marzana Jurzak as she walked her dog on that morning in Sean Walsh Memorial Park, Tallaght, Dublin 24.

The court has already been told that in the days before his death Bob had won €2-3,000 at a Dublin casino.

Brendan Ryan, another walker who was in the park with his partner just before 8am that morning, on Thursday told prosecution counsel Paul Greene SC that he was approached by Ms Jurzak, who asked for Mr Ryan’s assistance.

Mr Ryan said his partner rang for an ambulance as he checked Bob’s bag and found work clothes and deodorant. The witness said he asked Bob for his name but Bob could only mouth a word similar to “paw” or “Paul” due to his facial injuries.

Paramedic Paula Lawless said Bob had "racoon eyes" and "severe bruising" when she attended the scene shortly after 8am. She told Mr Greene that Bob was awake but was moaning and repeatedly asking for water, which he received. Ms Lawless said that she and colleague Tony Donnelly assisted a walking Bob to their ambulance and performed respiratory and cardiac procedures that showed the deceased's heart-rate to be normal.

Ms Lawless said the ambulance journey to Tallaght Hospital passed without incident but that Bob went into respiratory arrest upon arrival, later suffering cardiac arrest.

The witness told Padraig Dwyer SC, for Mr Anghel, that when she first saw Bob he had a swollen face and blood coming from his mouth but that said that he could stand and that his condition only deteriorated after the ambulance made it to the hospital.

Mr Donnelly told Mr Dwyer that there was “a trickle of bright red blood” coming from Bob’s nose. He told the barrister that while he noticed beer bottles and cans at the scene in the park he did not smell alcohol off Bob.

Statements from nurses at Tallaght hospital were read into the court which said that an identity card was discovered on Bob and that staff rang Tallaght Garda Station.

In his statement, Dr Ronan Murphy said that Bob’s lungs had been punctured and that he had cracked ribs and a fractured jaw. Bob was pronounced dead at 4.37pm that day.

Det Gda Mark Short played a lengthy CCTV compilation for the jury which showed Mr Bob in Dublin city centre in the company of another male before both took the Luas to Tallaght and entered the park in the early hours of April 13th. The male is later seen returning from the park but Bob does not reappear.

‘Very, very bad state’

In his opening speech, Mr Greene said the jury will hear evidence that after the attack on Bob, someone used the deceased’s phone and bank card at locations in Dublin and Meath, and the prosecution say this person is Mr Anghel. The barrister said that Bob had been found in the undergrowth of the park in a “very, very bad state” by a passer-by and that the cause of his death will be shown to be blunt force trauma.

Mr Greene said that Bob had lived a transient life in Ireland and had slept in his car for a time but had a "stroke of luck" at a Dublin city centre casino, winning €2,000 to €3,000.

He told the jury that the Romanian community in Dublin had "picked up on the win", which occurred days before Bob's death. However, Bob had sent a large portion of the money to Romania via a friend before he was attacked, said Mr Greene.

On Wednesday, Ms Jurzak said Bob “looked like he was sleeping” near a line of trees before her dog barked and woke him up. She said Bob looked like he had been beaten and that there was blood coming from his bruised face, though some of the blood seemed dry.

A tearful Ms Jurzak told the court that she asked Bob in English and Polish if he was okay or if he had been attacked but “he [Bob] just showed me four fingers”. The witness said that she saw Bob trying to speak but that his face was swollen and she did not understand what he was saying.

She said she formed the impression that when Bob held up four fingers he was trying to communicate that there were four attackers. “It was the first thing that came into my head, that four people attacked him,” she told Mr Dwyer.

The trial continues at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Justice Paul Burns and a jury of four women and eight men.