Father of two died from brain injuries consistent with single blow from iron bar, court told

A 40-year-old father of two who was fatally injured during a row at a filling station in Co Cork died as a result of injuries to the back of his head consistent with being struck once by an iron bar, a murder trial has heard.

Hungarian Ludowit Pasztor was pronounced dead at the scene after he and a Polish friend, Mariusz Osail (40), became involved in a row with two Polish truck drivers at the Amber Filling Station in Fermoy in Co Cork on February 21st, 2017.

Polish nationals, Tomasz Wasowicz (45) and Marcin Skrzpezyk (31), who were both working as truck drivers for Macroom Haulage at the time, deny the murder of Mr Pasztor (40) at the Amber Filling Station at Carrignagroghera, Fermoy on the day in question.

On Tuesday, Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margot Bolster, told the men's trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork that she found no evidence of either offensive or defensive wounds on Mr Pasztor's hands or arms when she conducted a post-mortem at Cork University Hospital.

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She said Mr Pasztor suffered a depressed complex fracture at the base of skull where she also found three lacerations which she believed were consistent with a single blow from an iron bar with a washer at one end and a screw at the other which she found near his body.

Depressed fracture

Dr Bolster said that Mr Pasztor died from traumatic brain injury with subarachnoid and intra cerebral contusional injuries with raised intracranial pressure due to blunt force trauma to the head which were consistent with one forceful blow from the iron bar.

Asked by prosecution counsel, Siobhan Lankford SC, if Mr Pasztor’s injuries could have been caused by a blow from a torch which gardaí also found at the scene, Dr Bolster said she could not completely rule that out from her post-mortem examination.

However, she believed it was unlikely the torch caused the depressed fracture at the base of his skull and it would have required three separate blows of the torch to cause the three lacerations which were consistent with a single blow from the iron bar with the washer and screw.

She said that she also carried out tests on Mr Pasztor’s blood and urine and she found he had a blood alcohol concentration of 213mgs per 100mls and a urine alcohol concentration of 270mgs per 100mls, which was the equivalent of about six or seven pints of alcohol.

The case continues before a jury of eight men and four women and Ms Justice Carmel Stewart at the Central Criminal Court sitting at the Anglesea Street Courthouse in Cork.