David Bolger jailed for manslaughter of housemate in Wexford

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

David Bolger was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 31 October 2023 to ten years and six months in prison, with the final 18 months suspended, for the manslaughter of his housemate Przemyslaw Klimczuk.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt suspended the final 18 months on condition that Bolger be of good behaviour and keep the peace. Bolger must also spend 12 months under probation supervision after his release and comply with the probation service’s conditions or serve the balance of the suspended sentence. The sentence was backdated to July 6 to account for time already spent in custody.

Bolger had denied murder. After a trial in July 2023, he was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. The judge said he was satisfied that the manslaughter finding was based on the defence that Bolger lacked the intention necessary for murder because of his intoxication.

Klimczuk was stabbed in the house the men shared in Enniscorthy on 1 May 2020. The court heard that Bolger had been drinking since 4pm that day and stabbed him with a kitchen knife after becoming aggressive. Detective Garda Tom O’Leary said a housemate saw Bolger thrust the knife into Klimczuk.

The judge said there was no credible basis for self-defence or provocation: Bolger had gone upstairs and negotiated his way into the bedroom before inflicting the fatal injury. He said coronavirus restrictions and excessive drinking formed the background to the case, though they did not excuse Bolger’s behaviour.

The judge placed the offence in the higher bracket, with a headline sentence of 14 years. He reduced it in light of Bolger’s genuine remorse and early offer to plead guilty to manslaughter. Defence counsel Colman Cody SC read a letter in which Bolger apologised to Klimczuk’s family.